Six Years Past
by Aleria14
Summary: It has been six years since Max had left the school. Now her main goal is to find the family that she left behind. The last thing Max can remember is dark eyes staring intently at her. It's up to Max and Fang to rescue their beloved family. LOTS OF FAX!
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

**Me: I was bored so what do I do?**

**Iggy: She writes a fnicking Fax story -facepalm- Any _normal _teenager would talk to her friends on MSN, or watch TV. But _you _go and write a random Fax story that she hasn't thought through...**

**Me: Well, I really like this idea. It was a random thought that occured to me while watching night at the Museum.**

**Iggy: And why did that give you inspiration!?!??!**

**Me: -shrugs- I have no clue**

**Iggy: -facepalm-**

**Me: Anyway, this is just the prologue for the story, so Fang doesn't come into it just yet. But he will in the next chapter. I just needed to explain what was happening and then he'll come in and the Fax will truly begin**

**Iggy: Great...**

**Me: Oh, and, just to annoy Iggy, there will probably be EGGY later as well. **

**Iggy: :O**

**Me: Since when can you do face icons?**

**Iggy: Since I figured out how to press the right keys :D:):P:O**

**Me: -sighs- Well, let's get on with the story. I hope that you enjoy it :D**

It had been six years. I know, it sounds like a long time, but in reality it only felt like days. Even more so since the dreams had started up.

I can still remember the sad, scared eyes of the flock, people I had considered my family, looking at me through the bars of their cages. I remember the cold, white walls bringing nothing but sorrow and fear throughout the room. Apart from these things, there was nothing else to remember. There was nothing else in that cramped room but the walls, the cages and us.

There was me, of course, with the name that I had dubbed myself – Maximum.

To my left was a small chocolate skinned girl who never said much – not that any of us ever did – and we had called her Nudge. At the time, she was only five years old

On my right was the small one year old with an angelic face who we had, obviously, named Angel. She was still only a baby when I saw her last.

Across from me on the left was Angel's three year old brother, the Gasman. We'd named him this after only two days of knowing him. I don't think it takes a lot imagination to figure out why we called him this.

Then, still on the opposite side from me, but on the right diagonal from me was the blind strawberry blonde boy, Iggy. He had lost his vision in surgery, poor kid. We were the same age at the time, maybe......eight?

And the last boy was in between Iggy and Gazzy. The thing is, I always remembered him most clearly because of one of his most intense features – his eyes. It was like; you could have a whole conversation with him, just by staring into those magnificent eyes. He never showed much emotion, but it was all there in his intense gaze.

I could never forget those dark eyes staring at me through the bars of his dog crate.

Anyway, as I said, none of us ever said much to each other, but there was one thing we knew for certain – we all considered each other family.

And I would do anything to get them back.

Anything.

+-+-+-+-+-+-

I woke up with a jolt and looked around alarmed.

"Fall asleep _again, _Max?" My friend, Alison, asked me.

I smiled sheepishly at her and brushed my hair out of my face. "Yeah," I muttered, trying to remember where I was.

I looked up at the white board and determined that I was in math class and moaned inwardly. It was no wonder that I fell asleep. Have you ever had a teacher that talks in the same tone of voice for the whole lesson and doesn't care whether you listen or not and keeps talking anyway? Well, that's Mr Hone for you; always going on about something unimportant.

"So, what is it this time, Max? Stay up late studying? Went out to dinner again? Sister keep you awake? _Forgot_ to sleep?" Ali joked, resting her head on her hands.

I laughed. "I was studying for that exam we have fourth period."

Her head immediately shot up from her hands and she stared at me, wide eyed. "Exam!? Since when!?" She almost shouted.

"Uh, since three weeks ago," I replied. That's Ali for you, always forgetting to study and panicking at the last minute.

She moaned and plonked her head on the desk. "My life is over....."

I sighed and patted her back. I hated lying to her, but I had no choice. By 'studying' I meant 'I went out for a midnight _flight _to stretch my wings and clear my clogged head.'

Yes, you heard right, _wings. _Whenever those dreams begin to bother me, it's as simple as stretching my wings and jumping out my bedroom window into the night. I would often fly for hours on end and not come back until it was early morning –hence why I was always falling asleep.

"It's okay," I told my friend. "We have a free next period so I'll help you study then."

"Thanks Max. Why is it always you bailing me out of these things?"

I smirked. "Maybe it's because you always forget to study and I'm the one that always reminds you. Or, it could be the fact that I'm just smarter than you," I mocked and she shoved my arm.

"Right. And I can fly," she joked.

It took every muscle in my face to not frown at that comment, but I managed a small laugh. Still, I couldn't help but think, '_if only she knew.'_

+-+-+-+-+-+-

I helped Ali study in that free period and we both took the test. She said it was easy and she knew that she'd passed. And as for me....let's just say that it can't be better than all of my other test scores that I've received over the years.

As I exited the school gates, I spotted a family of three entering through the main gate to the school. I shrugged. It was probably another new student. They seem to be flooding in these days. I'd been here since I had been taken out of the school by my birth mom – Valencia Martinez. She was a vet at the local veterinary clinic and had rescued me from that hellhole when I was eight years old and brought me here to this small town- not saying where.

But, the thing is, the one regret I have in leaving the school is that I left the only family that I'd ever known behind me.

I made it home and took my house keys out of my pocket to unlock the front door, but my mom beat me to it.

"Hey, sweetie, how was school?" Mom asked, greeting me with the usual hug.

"Fine, as usual." I sniffed the air before I wide smile spread across my face. "Is that chocolate chip cookies I smell?"

She sighed. "Yes, I made them for you and Ella. She's already in there pigging out on them so I suggest you get in there before-"

She didn't have to finish the end of the sentence before I bounded through the living room and into the kitchen where Ella was eating up the cookies faster than I could fly.

"Hey!" I shouted as I dived in after her, filling my face with the sweet goodness of the cookies.

"Damn," Ella muttered. "I was trying to finish them off before you got home!"

"Humph, as if," I said in between bites of the scrumptious cookies.

I swear that I had the best mother in the whole entire world.

And I hoped that the other members of my family were doing as well as I was.

**Me: There's the prologue. I will update as soon as I can and bring in Fang, teehee :D**

**Iggy: Great. I get to listen to Bell write about my brother and sister making out.....-shudders-**

**Me: -rolls eyes- Whatever.**

**R&R!? Please? I just want a second oppinion here. Just tell me what you think. Like it? Hate it? Want to rip me apart?**

**Iggy: Yes**

**Me: Ignore Ig, he's just tired**

**Iggy: Then I guess that I'm tired all the time!**

**Me: -sighs- I think I'd better end this before Ig and I end up in our usual argument.**

**Please review ;)**

**Bell and Ig**


	2. Chapter 2: Nick arrives at Max's school

**Me: So, here you go. This is the chapter that Nick comes into it.**

**Iggy: Nick?**

**Me: -facepalm-**

**Iggy: Bell? What the heck is going on in this story?**

**Me: You'll see. I have a few tricks up my sleeve....**

**Iggy: Good God....**

**Me: Yesh :D:D:D And, I feel really random today, so I might update Iggy Ramblings after this....**

**Iggy: That would be great**

**Me: -nods- Oh, and keep in mind a few things:  
One of my reviews asked if the books had happened. Obviously not. Dr. Martinez rescued Max from the school and other people rescued the rest of the flock. So, Jeb never helped them to escape because he didn't need to.  
They sill all have wings  
And the kids in the flock are pretty much the same as they are in the books - they just grew up differently. They also still have all their abilities and stuff like that too.**

**Anyway on with the story**

The next day, I left home for school as usual and walked down the street towards the gate, Ella loitering behind me.

"So, uh..." She hesitated and I glanced at her over my shoulder.

"What?" I asked impatiently.

"Are....are you still trying to find those kids from six years ago?"

I took in a deep breath and held it in my chest but continued walking.

"Yes," I answered quietly.

We didn't say anything more after that and we didn't need to. Only Ella knew that I was looking for them and that was only because she walked in on me one night while I was on the computer trying to find traces of them. Any kids with a MySpace or something with the nicknames of my old family were immediately put on my list and I would search through them in the hopes of digging up something. But I never had any luck.

Ella and I entered through the gate, went into the school and we broke up as I went down one hall and she went down another. I sighed as I approached my locker and put in my combination. I then rammed my elbow against the bottom and my hand against the top, and it flew open. All of the lockers in the school were completely busted and each had a special way of being opened that you had to figure out for yourself.

I shoved my bag into my locker and began to take my books out when I was interrupted by someone.

"Hey, Max."

I peered around my locker door and groaned inwardly.

"Sam, why can't you leave me alone?" I asked irritably. "It. Didn't. Work. Out. Now, get over yourself and move on with your miserable life before I end it for good!" I threatened as I retreated down the hall toward homeroom. But Sam jumped in front of me and blocked my way.

"Max," he said calmly as if he was still lovesick. "I just want to talk."

"Oh, so now you want to talk to me. The last time I wanted to talk to you, you were too busy sucking face with that bitch!" I said angrily between clenched teeth.

Sam put an apologetic look across his face.

"Max, I told you that it was something that I didn't want to happen! She was the one that kissed me-"

"And yet you continued to kiss her back like a loyal boyfriend should do. Now get the hell out of my way and let me through!" I snarled as I tried to go around him but he stepped in my way _again. _

"Can't we just put that behind us and get back together again. I love you-"

But before he could finish his little apology, which was probably a load of bull shit anyway, I had drawn my fist back and punched him hard in the nose. Hearing it crack, he fell to floor in pain and I walked past him, ignoring the stares and whispers from the other students.

Two months ago, Sam and I had been an 'item,' but then I caught him cheating with a red-head named Lissa. I'd hated red-heads ever since.

I took my seat next to Alison for homeroom and I could feel my hands angrily clutching my books. Since I had unbelievable strength compared to most kids my age, as shown earlier, I almost ripped my book in two.

"Sam bothering you again?" Ali asked, leaning across her desk.

My teeth were still grinding so I stiffly nodded.

"Please don't tell me that you punched him again?"

I didn't have time to answer because the bell rang and then a girl with light brown hair entered the room. I knew her to be the vice president of my year, which meant that it wasn't good.

She handed a note to my teacher and he sighed before saying an overused statement.

"Max, to the principal's office......now!" He said loudly as he pointed out the door.

Ali sighed as I got up and made my way out the door toward the room I knew so well. Why was this room so familiar to me? Mainly because I'd broken Sam's nose seven times and the kid still hadn't got the message. Other reasons for visiting to principal are a few other guys who had flirted with me and I couldn't stand to be around them any longer. I was brought up to not let anyone push me around, and when some guy wanted to attempt to get in my pants, I would let them know what I thought in a different way from using words.

I knocked on the door before entering and strolling into the room. I plonked myself lightly down on the guest seat and avoided Principal Lockyer's gaze.

"Hello again, Max." He said calmly, doodling on a scrap piece of paper.

"Whatever. Can we just get this over with? What's the penalty this time? Community service? Detention? _Death?" _I asked with a seemingly uncaring voice.

The principal sighed. He knew exactly what I was like – unco-operative. It was just the way I was _made. _

He leaned forward in his chair and placed his arms on the desk. "No, Max. It seems that whatever I do, you still end up breaking that kid's nose."

I tried to hold back a snicker. "Well, how would you feel if you had some random girl who keeps bothering you to get back together and try again at a non-existent relationship, I bet that you'd get somewhat annoyed....unless you swing the other way?" I replied smugly.

His face turned _bright_ pink before he replied. "Max, I'm going to deal with you in a different way this time as I've had enough of all this and I want you out of my office as much as you seem want to punch this kid in the nose. So, here's the deal, you don't have to go to detention twice a week for a month if you show a new student around the school." He said, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"You definitely swing the other way, don't you?" I said, looking at his stylish hair, his pink, flowery top and tight jeans.

"Max! Do we have a deal, or not?" He asked, his anger and impatience rising in his voice.

I sighed; I didn't particularly want detention for a month....

"Fine, I'll show the new kid around," I mumbled while looking down at the floor. "But how is this going to stop me from punching Sam in the nose?"

"Who knows. Maybe you'll learn something about....." He trailed off and looked away

"What? Manners? Respect? Or maybe he'll teach me that guys aren't lying, cheating scumbags that only want one thing," I said sarcastically, my hands bawling into fists.

Principal Lockyer let out a breath, clearly showing signs that he'd had enough. "Stay here. I'll go and get the new student, and then you can show him to his classes," he said as he stood up and headed briskly out the door in the direction of the office.

He came back a few minutes later with a tall boy dressed in a black shirt and a really dark, almost black, pair of jeans. He also had dark hair and eyes to match his outfit.

"Max, this is Nick. He's the new student that I was telling you about," the principal said.

As he said my name, Nick jumped slightly and made eye contact with me for a split second before looking away again.

"Max will show you around, Nick, and if you have any enquiries, just ask her."

"Yes, because I am the next Masaya and I know everything about anything," I muttered standing up and heading out the door, Nick following close behind.

We stopped outside the principal's office and I turned to Nick.

"Look, I'm going to be straight with you here. The only reason that I said that I'd show you around was so that I could get out of detention, so don't expect any favours." I said looking up at him. The kid was really tall and thin for his age, a lot like me in that sense.

At my comment, Nick just shrugged. Any other time I would have been infuriated by that, but instead, I ignored it.

"Where do you have to go next? Can I see your timetable?" I asked him.

He reached his hand into his pocket and unfolded his timetable.

"Okay," I stated as I looked at it. "You have science first in one of the science rooms on the other side of the school. Then-"

"It's okay, Max," he said in a smooth and even voice, pausing for a second before saying my name. "I think that I'll be able to find my way by myself. Thank you," he said quietly as he took the paper back. He stared at me for a moment, before shaking his head and walking toward his first class.

I sighed and shook my head as if coming out of a daze.

The way that he looked at me reminded me a lot of......No.

_There was no way in hell that it could be him. Could it?_

**Me: And, there you have it**

**Iggy: Uh-huh...aren't you supposed to be doing your math project?**

**Me: 'Supposed' to be. Jeez, Ig. Get it right!**

**Iggy: -facepalm-**

**Me: Well, I'd better go and do my math project now. Anyone want to team up with me and my friend Kara to destroy math?**

**Iggy: Sounds like a good plan**

**Me: -nods-**

**Bell and Ig**


	3. Chapter 3: Nick talks to Max

**Me: -yawns- I am soooooo tired**

**Iggy: You should get more sleep**

**Me: That's the problem! I can't!**

**Iggy: Wow, you're cranky**

**Me: -facepalm- Okay, excuse for not updating? I had a Math project, an english speech, an english assignment, a science project, a four day camp, a math exam, a science test and a commrece project due all in the same two weeks. I had a pretty tough month as teachers found it funny to chuck projects at me at once! And, the miracle was, I got them all done and now I'm free to write fanfiction!!!!**

**Iggy: Yay?**

**Me: YEAH!**

**Iggy: Okay...**

**Me: WOO! I like this chapter**

**Iggy: Why? Nothing exciting happens!**

**Me: stuff happens!**

**Iggy: Like?**

**Me: Why would I say in the A/N!?**

**Iggy: You might be trying to give stuff away?**

**Me: -facepalm- Just enjoy the chapter :D**

When Nick had left, the bell went and the halls were soon buzzing with the sound of chattering students as they went to class.

"Max? What happened with the principal?"

I turned around to see that Ali was standing next to me, staring at me as if I was from another planet.

"Uh, I have to show this new guy around school as punishment," I muttered, beginning to lead the way to our next class.

"Really? Then, where is he?"

I shrugged. "He went to go find his class. Apparently he's too _cool_ for my help," I muttered as we rounded a corner and walked through the door to English.

"Is he hot?" Ali asked in an excited voice.

I laughed. "Uh...well, I don't know. You'll have to tell me when you see him."

She held back a squeal and it took every ounce of self-control to not burst into hysterical laughter at the face she was making.

* * *

The rest of day went off without a hitch. I didn't run into Nick again after that – even though I actually did kind of, sort of want to see him again. I have no idea what it was about him that made me feel this way, but there was definitely something there.

"Max? Max!"

I shook my head looked toward Ali's concerned face. "Yeah?"

"That is like the fifth time that you've zoned out today. What's up?" She asked with a sigh.

I swung my backpack over my shoulder and almost tripped over my own feet as I walked down the hall towards the door out of the school.

"I-I'm fine," I stuttered, trying to steady myself and brushing my hair out of my eyes.

"Alright. Fine. Whatever. Now, are you going to tell me about this Nick guy or not?"

"Not," I answered just wishing that my thoughts could go anywhere but toward him.

"Aw, why not?" She asked sounding like it was completely unbelievable that I didn't want to talk to her about boys – which I never did anyway.

"Because, there's nothing to talk about," I said as calmly as I could before I picked up my walking speed slightly, just wanting to get out of school.

"Oh, but I _know _that there is."

I immediately stopped dead in my tracks and Ali almost crashed into me.

"What?" I asked with a frown

"You like him," she whispered as she rocked back and forth looking as innocent as a little devil could be.

I opened my mouth to say something but nothing would come out. I believe that if I could speak, I would be saying something along the lines of 'I don't like him at all. I just met the guy!' But, since my mouth wasn't working with me, I just stood there like a fish, gulping for air.

I watched as Ali's smile grew into a huge smirk as she looked at me in my uncomfortable state.

"No!" I finally got out. _Yes, that's it_. _Now I just need to get the whole sentence out-_

"Liar. You do too! That's why you don't want to talk about him, Max." Ali said teasingly.

"Ali, I just met the guy!" I whispered looking around, hoping that no one else heard us.

Well, I hoped...

"Who do you like, Max?" I heard a voice say behind me.

I spun around and saw Sam standing behind us, looking curiously at us with a huge unfriendly smirk on his face. He now had a very crooked nose with surgical tape on it to make it would heal properly after I broke it.

"Nobody Sam," I said clenching my teeth and continuing to walk. I almost laughed as I glanced over my shoulder and saw Ali glaring at him as best she could.

"But, Max," Sam said as he hurried to keep up with me. "You have to tell me so that I can eliminate the competition."

What. Was. With. This. Guy!?!?!?!?

"We have nothing anymore, Sam. So what if I like another guy. As long as it's not you, I think that I'll be very happy with whoever I choose to be with," I said angrily as I tried to walk away, but he grabbed my arm and turned me to face him so I was looking up at him.

"Back off!" I said trying to get out of his grasp.

Sam opened his mouth to say something, but before I knew it, he was pushed against the wall by someone in dark clothes and dark hair.

Nick.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and surrounded the group of two boys and Ali and I pushed through the crowd to see what was happening.

"She said 'back off,'" Nick said so quietly that only I, with my raptor hearing, and Sam could hear.

"So, you're the guy, huh?" He asked with a smile.

So, it was just proven to me that even when Sam was being threatened by someone – even someone as scary as Nick seemed to be – he _still _doesn't give up.

Clingy much?

"Go home," Nick murmured before turning and heading out the door quickly.

The crowd then dispersed and all began to head home, realising that there wasn't going to be a fight or anything.

"Go after him and say thank you," Ali whispered, getting up on her tip toes to get to face height with me.

I rolled my eyes and chased after Nick, glad to be away from Ali and her questions.

* * *

I caught up with him just as he walked out the gate.

"Nick!" I called and he stopped walking to face me.

Guess what his response was? If you guess something like: _He raised an eyebrow and said nothing. _The you really do know this story way too well.

"What was that about?"

He shrugged. "He was bothering you, right?"

"Yeah. But I can usually handle him"

"That would explain his nose." He chuckled softly.

I rolled my eyes. "Well, you didn't have to do that."

"Yeah, I know."

"Then why?" I asked. Realising that he'd only just met me today and didn't say more than a few sentences to me.

"I wanted to," he said and we both kept walking.

"But-" I tried but he interrupted me.

"Why do you have to ask so many questions?" He asked as he shoved his hands in his pockets. "Can't you just be thankful that I stopped Sam from annoying you?"

That was the longest sentence that he'd said all day.

"Thank you," I said quietly as I looked down at the pavement.

"You're welcome," He said quietly as we turned down another street. "Now was that so hard?"

"Yes. It was," I muttered and he tilted his mouth in what could have been counted as a smile.

I decided to change the subject.

"Where do you live?" I asked, looking up at him. He wasn't that much taller than me – my eyes were at his shoulder.

"There," he answered simply as he pointed to a nice looking house...right across the street from mine.

"Mine's there," I said pointing the house directly opposite.

"I guess that I'll see you tomorrow then...unless you're like other girls and take forever to get ready. Then I'll see you at school," he said with a smirk.

"I'm _nothing _like other girls," I said defensively, heading towards my house.

"Bye," Nick said and I waved my hand as I walked in and closed the front door.

I waited for a few seconds, before poking my head out to make sure that he'd gone inside.

He had.

So, I stepped out and ran around the side of my house and took off into the air, feeling the wind carry me up and up and up. My wings were beating powerfully with the breeze caressing my light brown feathers and my hair pushed right off my face.

As I said, I was _nothing _like other girls.

_He had no idea. _

**Me: There you go :) I hope that you liked it ;)**

**Iggy: Yeah. It was okay...**

**Me: Nick and Max had their first conversation. This is moving forward now :D**

**Iggy: Uh-huh**

**Me: -sighs- We're out of convo's, aren't we?**

**Iggy: Yup**

**Me: -laughs- Okay. Let's just end it.**

**R&R!?!?!?!?!?!?**

**-Bell and Ig :D**


	4. Chapter 4: New student?

**Me: So, I went on a FAX high and decided to FINALLY update this story**

**Iggy: Excuse?**

**Me: -sighs- I honestly have no excuse, other than writers block**

**Iggy: You don't often have that**

**Me: Yeah, well every writer gets writers block every now and then...well, here's another chapter**

**Iggy: It's a weird one**

**Me: -growls- Lissa....**

**Iggy: Oh yeah...**

**Me: Well, enjoy the chapter...**

I dashed into the school gate and ran toward the school, just as I heard the first bell rang and I walked up to my locker and threw my bag and wet raincoat inside. And as everyone began to crowd around their own lockers I then proceeded to wring out my drenched hair with my hands.

_It only started raining after I left the house. It couldn't have started when I walked into school, could it?_ I thought angrily as I then started to shake out my wet books.

Then, to make things worse, Nick, who was wearing the biggest smirk, walked up to me.

"So, I guess that you took forever to get ready this morning and left just as soon as it started raining," he said with his hands in his pockets.

I just glared at him.

"You could have grabbed an umbrella," he stated as if that was the obvious solution to my problem.

"And you could have remembered to bring some 'consideration for other people's feelings' this morning, but you obviously didn't," I retorted but I could feel a smile playing on my lips.

By about this time, I had only known Nick for about two weeks, but we'd already become really good friends, which was unusual for me because it generally took a lot of time before I could trust anyone...but Nick was different.

We seemed to have some sort of connection right from the start and it had grown over the past few weeks.

"I need to get to class," Nick muttered as he looked at his watch and then back up at me. "I'll see you tonight?"

"Yeah, sure," I replied with a shrug. Sure, Ali was going to give me endless teasing for walking home with him _again _(like I had every day for two weeks)but we were just friends, nothing more.

After Nick left, I grabbed my books from my locker and began to rush down the hallway to meet Alison for our first class. However, as I turned a corner, someone walked into me and knocked all of the books out of my hands.

I really wasn't having a very good morning...

"Sorry," the boy muttered as he began quickly picking up his books, not even glancing at me.

"Hey, are you new here?" I asked as I inspected him carefully while picking up all of my books as well. He had fair, strawberry blonde hair and pale blue eyes. He was also very tall, maybe a few inches taller than Nick, and he was very thin.

"Yeah," he said cautiously as he finished picking up his books and stood up. "I'm Jeff," he said as he held out a hand to help me up.

I gratefully took it and stood up, shaking it in greeting. "Max."

He sighed as he leaned against the wall, seeming like he was waiting for something.

Then the bell rang.

"Damn it," I muttered under my breath and he laughed slightly.

"Well, it looks like we're both late now," he said with a smirk.

"Looks like," I said but, for some reason, I was in no hurry to get to class; probably because I was still trying to work out why he seemed so different. "I'm going to go ahead and assume that you're lost."

He chuckled. "What gave you that idea?"

"Just a hunch," I said as I shrugged. But he didn't seem to take notice of anything I did, and I finally realised why.

I waved a hand in front of his face and he didn't respond for a moment before his hand snatched out and grabbed my wrist.

"It took you long enough to figure it out," he said quietly before letting go of my wrist and smiling brightly at me.

For a blind kid he sure was really happy...

I rolled my eyes at him. "Well, didn't Principal Lockyer give you a tour guide?"

"Yes, but I just got ditched," he said as his smile instantly vanished.

"Who?"

"Lissa."

I groaned. How stupid could our principal get!?

"You know her?" He asked raising his eyebrows.

"The bitch that I found kissing my boyfriend- ahem, X boyfriend? Yeah, I know her," I retorted angrily, trying not to scream at the thought of her.

"Oh..."

"Where do you have to go?" I asked, pushing the feeling of anger to the back of my mind.

He put his hand in his pocket and brought out his class schedule and I looked at it.

"You're in my first two classes and then you're in Alison's class, and then Nick's," I read out, frowning. Seriously, what are the chances of that?

"Alison? Nick? Is he your boyfriend?" He asked with a grin while wiggling his eyebrows.

I felt my cheeks grow hot as I answered. "No!" It was good he couldn't see my blushing.

"Whatever," he replied as if he didn't believe me. "So, where's _our_ first class? I think that we're late enough already."

I sighed as I grabbed his arm and gently pulled him along.

"You know, you're the second new kid that I've had to help this week. Who am I, The Welcoming committee?" I muttered, more to myself than Jeff.

He snickered. "Well, if you are, I expect a more formal welcome than running into you in a hallway."

"Like what? A punch in the face?" I replied hotly.

"Exactly!" He said as if the answer was obvious.

I was really beginning to like this kid.

+-+-+

"Maximum! You're late again- Who's this?" Mr. Batchelder asked as Jeff stood somewhat nervously next to me.

"Jeff Walker," he replied. "I'm new and got lost. Max helped me," he said as he subtly winked at me.

Mr. Batchelder looked down at his student list and flipped a page."Oh, yes, you're on the list. Max can show you to your seat next to Abbie."

I nodded and led Jeff to his seat before sitting next to Ali in my usual spot.

Mr. Batchelder then proceeded to talk about some boring science stuff and Ali leaned over to me.

"Two boys in one week? What's your secret, Max?" she whispered before she started giggling.

"Being late to class," I answered. "It's amazing who you can meet in a hallway."

+-+-+

I stood at the gate while I waited for the 'Prince of Darkness' to get here. When we had our break for lunch, I had introduced him to Jeff and they had seemed to get on well enough.

I watched the doors as they swung open again and Jeff and Nick came through, talking happily as they met me.

"Hey," Nick greeted as he gave a curt wave of his hand.

"I see you two are getting along," I said happily as the three of us began walking down the path toward our houses. It turns out that Jeff lived on the street opposite Nick and mine. Small world, huh? I was really starting to think that this was a set-up of some sort...

"Yeah, Nick isn't too bad," Jeff joked while playfully hitting his arm.

I rolled my eyes. "You know, Alison's still trying to figure out how I managed to get two guys to talk to me in less than two weeks."

Jeff suddenly guffawed while Nick smirked.

"Is she hot?" Jeff asked through his laughter. "I'll ask her out."

"You will not!" I replied defensively and he just laughed harder.

"No, I'll just ask you out instead. The she'll really be wonder how you got two guys to date you at once."

"We're not dating," Nick clarified; the smirk was gone from his face.

"Oh," Jeff said and he stopped laughing. "This is my street, I'll see you guys tomorrow...well, not literally." He said as he walked across the road and down his street.

How he knew it was there, I'll never know.

"So, he's interesting," Nick said when he's gone and I laughed.

"As I said to Ali today, 'it's amazing who you can meet in a hallway."'

Nick snickered as we rounded a corner into our street.

"Tomorrow, we're meeting out at six forty-five and we're walking to school together," Nick said decisively. "We havn't done it in ages because of your tardiness."

"Six forty-five A.M.?" I asked, fake shock playing on my words and my face.

Nick rolled his eyes.

"Why are you so keen to walk to school with me anyway?" I asked curiously.

How did he reply? You guessed it. Nick simply shrugged.

"You'd better not oversleep again."

+-+-+

I woke up the next morning to find that I had over slept. I groaned as I jumped out of bed and glanced at the clock. It was eight forty-two. School started in less than three minutes and I wasn't anywhere near ready and I'd missed out on walking to school with Nick again, all because I stayed up late looking for information on the kids from six years ago. I obviously didn't know when to quit.

I quickly threw on some random clothes – making sure that I put on one of my tops with slits in the back. I then picked up my windbreaker and packed my bag, deciding that I'd get lunch from the cafeteria instead of bringing my own today. I also had decided that I was going to do something that Mom had told me never to do – I was going to fly to school today.

I swung my bag over my shoulder and clutched my windbreaker as I threw myself out the window and stared flying in such haste that I wasn't watching where I was going and crashed straight into a dark object.

As it turns out, I never actually went to school that day. The way I saw it, I didn't need to.

The object that I crashed into was Nick.

And he had big, black, dark wings.

**Me: Iggy! What in the name of Jeb are you doing in this chapter?**

**Iggy: -shrugs- You were the one that wrote it!**

**Me: -sighs- You weren't supposed to come into the story until, like, six more chapters!**

**Iggy: Well, it looks like I wanted to come in and meet Max and 'Nick.'**

**Me: -facepalm- Has anyone ever written a story where a character comes into it too early, all because you simply couldn't stop writing and it just felt right to have that character come in? Well, I know a few Authors have had it happen where characters start acting on their own accord and you have no control. It just seemed that no matter how I wrote it, Iggy _needed _to com in in this chapter.**

**Iggy: -sighs- You and your writing. That's what? Three stories updated in one day?**

**Me: Yep ;) Iggy Ramblings next.**

**Iggy: -facepalm-**

**Me: R&R!?!? Please? I just want to know what you think.  
Also, there will be lots of FAXNESS in the next chapter...obviously, considering I left you with a cliffie ;)**

**Bell and Ig**


	5. Chapter 5: Nick plus wings equals Fang

**Me: Wow, I got a lot of reviews before. Thanks guys :D**

**Iggy: Christmas is nearing it's end and things have finally started to get back to normal here...**

**Me: Yeah. We didn't sleep until, like, 3am the night before-**

**Iggy: _YOU _didn't sleep until 3am the night before...**

**Me: -sighs- Iggy kept yelling at me to go to sleep...it was funny**

**Iggy: No, it wasn't**

**Me: Whatever. Now, I guess there's som FAX in here if you squint**

**Iggy: There _is_ Fax in here, Bell**

**Me: Yeah. More Fax starts appearing as the story goes on. Now, I believe that someone (can't remember who) asked in a review 'wouldn't Max have recognised Fang and Iggy?'  
Now, I'd thought about this as well before writing this story and this is what I thought.  
It had been six years and Max never considered that any of the flock would appear at her school. Therefore, she didn't even consider the possibility that the two boys that she met were Fang and Iggy.**

**Iggy: -shrugs- Makes sense-**

**Me: But then I thought, that maybe she would have recognised Iggy. But she did feel him as slightly familiar...**

**Iggy: Okay can you start the chapter now-**

**Me: And it was actually Lissa that was supposed to walk down the hall instead of Iggy and run into Max but Iggy magically appeared in the chapter instead of her-**

**Iggy: BELL JUST START THE FNICKING CHAPTER ALREADY!!!!**

**Me:.........**

**Iggy:..........**

**Me:..............**

**Iggy:.............**

**Me:......-giggles-**

**Iggy: What now?**

**Me: you said 'fnicking'**

**Iggy: -headdesk-**

**Me: On with the chapter :D**

For a moment, none of us said anything. We just stared open mouthed at each other, probably unable to speak. The only sound that we could hear was the sound of our wings beating the air powerfully to stay aloft. It was as if nothing else existed in that moment – everything around us seemed to fade away like dust being blown away by the wind. It was just me and Nick, staring at each other.

My eyes flickered from his slightly shocked face, to his midnight colored wings. I watched them with interest as they beat the air powerfully, a lot like the way that mine did. However, I noticed that his wingspan was slightly larger than mine, probably because he was taller.

My eyes then moved back up to his face, and I stared intently into his amazing dark eyes, as he stared back into mine.

"_Max?"_

My name echoed through my head and I held my head in my hands and closed my eyes.

_I looked up through the bars of my dog crate to see Fang staring intently at me. Although he never really showed much emotion, this time there was one thing that I could see clearly in his gaze – fear._

"_What is it Fang?' I whispered._

"_Listen," He murmured as the two of us became quiet and we listened carefully._

"_What? Why would he suggest such a thing!? This could endanger the whole experiment-" one of the Whitecoats was yelling just outside our room._

"_Carter, be quiet!" the other one interrupted. "We can't have anyone knowing about this! It could ruin everything!"_

"_No, our yelling won't ruin everything. The fact that _he's _going through with _this_ will ruin everything – including our jobs!"_

_I looked over at Fang and he shrugged._

_For the rest of the night, the two of us didn't say a word. We just looked at each other, doing that thing we were so good at – having a conversation with no words._

_We had no idea what the Whitecoats had in store for us, but we knew that it wasn't good._

_The next day, I was taken away by my Mom._

"Max? Are you alright?"

I slowly pried my eyes open and found that I was staring into Fang's dark eyes again. I screamed, thinking that it was still a dream but he shushed me.

I sat up abruptly and looked around.

"What happened?" I asked, confused.

"You were clutching your head and then you fell out of the sky. I caught you," he added, still holding me with his gaze.

I frowned as I looked at his eyes. They were so intense and magnificent...

_Wait, hadn't I said that about someone's eyes before?_

Realisation finally dawned on me then – it was all in his gaze.

On my knees, I shuffled over to where he was sitting, and then brushed his hair away from his eyes so I could look more closely at them.

"What?" he asked cautiously. "Are you delusional?"

"Fang," I whispered and I smiled as his eyes widened in surprise, before they became emotionless once more.

"It is _you, _right? I'm not...I'm not dreaming?" I stuttered, waiting for his reply.

He shook his head, and then I threw myself into his arms, hugging him tightly.

For a moment, he was unresponsive, but then he hugged me back, and, get this, I began to cry into Fang's shoulder.

"Maximum Ride," he murmured into my hair, sounding like he still couldn't believe it was really me. "I'm glad that I've finally found you."

+-+-+

So, for a few hours, Fang and I talked about our lives and what we'd done in the past six years.

As it turns out, after I left the school, he was the next person to be taken away, although, not by his real mother like I had. A nice woman named 'Marian Janssen' had taken him in and adopted him. He'd lived a happy life, though he moved schools quite a lot so he never really had time to make friends. Mrs. Janssen worked for a small company and she had to do a lot of travelling to keep her job and, therefore, needed to take Fang with her, but he never complained. As I said, he sounded quite happy, and that was good enough for me.

"Do you know anything about the others?" I asked him after he'd told me his story.

He shook his head. "I've been doing my research, but I never come up with anything," he muttered.

My eyes widened. "You've been looking for them too?"

"Of course," he said as if it was the obvious thing to do. "I assume that that's why you're always late to school?" He raised an eyebrow at me and I nodded.

"Well, if you _really_ did research on the Flock, how can you always wake up early?" I asked curiously. He'd wanted to meet me at _six fort-five _this morning...

"It's called caffeine, Max, you should try it sometime."

"Ha ha, you're quite the comedian," I muttered, looking away from his intense gaze.

"Na, I just know more than you," he replied with a snicker.

"Yeah right," I rolled my eyes.

"Well, if you don't want me to tell you the important information that I found out about one of the Flock, then I won't tell you," he said as he lay back on the grass and looked up at the clouds.

I glared at him menacingly. "Fang!"

He simply shook his head.

"Fine then. I won't tell you about the important information that I found out on one of the Whitecoats that worked at the school," I retorted, lying down next to him.

"Deal."

Then, we lay there in comfortable silence for about ten minutes until Fang cracked.

"One of the people that took one of the Flock away was named Anne Walker," Fang explained quietly. "I don't know who she took though, and her trail runs cold after I found out that she works as an accountant for some weird company."

"Can you remember the name of the company?"

"Uh," Fang scrunched his face up in thought. "Itex?"

"Hmm," I said thoughtfully. "Never heard of it."

"Me neither," he replied. "Now, tell me your info."

I shrugged. "Don't have any."

He pushed himself up on his elbow and glared at me.

I glared back.

After that, we both ended up laughing for a long time.

**Me: YAY!!**

**Iggy: Two down, four to go**

**Me: You have no idea what I have in store for Angel, Gazzy and Nudge. -smiles evilly-**

**Iggy: Great...**

**Me: Oh, and Max and Fang have no idea what they're in for either...MUHAHAHAHA**

**Iggy: Bell, just end the chapter before you scare the readers into not reviewing**

**Me: As if I'd do that!**

**Iggy: Right...**

**R&R?**

**Just tell me what you think. I've been working on this chapter for a few days and I already have the next two chapter ready to post. The faster you review, the faster you get the next chapter...**

**Iggy: I like the chapter after the next**

**Me: -facepalm- Of course you do........OH!**

**Iggy: WHAT NOW!**

**In the last chapter, around the time where Max met Iggy, there's something in there that I was hoping that you'd pick up. It's in the part where Iggy and meet each other and I was hoping that somebody would pick it up.**

**If you can find out what it is, and tell me in a review, then I'll send you part of the next chapter. **

**Here's a clue: It has something to do with Max and Fang's conversation in this chapter ;)**

**Iggy: Done now????**

**Me: Yeah...did you pick it up?**

**Iggy: Yes....**

**Me: -laughs- Freaked out?**

**Iggy: Definately!**

**Bell and Ig :D**


	6. Chapter 6: Ella

**Me: Well, it's New Years Eve here in Australia, so I don't have much time**

**Iggy: And we're both starving because we skipped lunch**

**Me: Dad has had me burning disks for tonight all day and Iggy and I both overslept ('cause we were up late last night talking to Skittles)**

**Iggy: No, you were up late talking to Skittles**

**Me: Oh yeah..... HI SKITTLES!!!**

**Iggy: Does she even read this story?**

**Me: -shrugs- Probably not, but maybe one day she will and she'll realise that we were talking about her**

**Iggy: -facepalm-**

**Me: Alright, now, I wrote a very long Fax chapter and that's coming up. :D I'm so excited. This is the leadup to the Fax chapter.**

**Thanks for all the reviews :D Your all awesome!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximium Ride or Misery Business by Paramore. That's Max's ringtone, hehe :D**

"Max!"

I was so close to getting to my room...

"Yeah, mom?"

"Why weren't you at school today?" She asked as she appeared at the bottom of the stairs and I sat down on one of them around half way up.

"Uh, well..." To be honest, I hadn't really had time to think of an excuse as to why I'd skipped school. Heck, I hadn't had time to get my head around the fact that I'd met _Fang _while rushing to school this morning.

"Maximum Ride, you'd better tell me what you've been doing today right now!

I winced, she used my _real_ full name; this wasn't good.

"I thought I saw..." I trailed off and I looked at the ground, pretending to be deep in thought.

"Oh, Max," mom said with a sigh. "I thought that you'd forgotten about them."

"I had," I lied. "But, I was almost certain that I saw something. It turns out that it was just a big bird..."

Both Fang and I had agreed not tell our 'parent's' about this. We had both decided that we couldn't trust any one...other than each other. Ever since I'd met him, I knew that he was the only person in the world that I would ever trust with anything – and it was going to stay that way.

"Why didn't you go in late to school then?" Mom asked as she rubbed her face with her hand.

I just shrugged.

"Well, I'll write a note saying that you had a cold and were too sick to go to school," Mom said as she began to walk toward the kitchen. "But you're grounded for a week."

I sighed as I got up and was about to walk up the stairs again when mom poked her head around the door again. "And that means no flying!"

I moaned as I slogged up the stairs and went straight to my room.

"_I'm in the business of Misery  
__Let's take it from the top  
__She's got a body like an hour glass  
__It's ticking like a-"_

"Hello?" I said as I picked up my phone.

"It's Fang."

"How did you get this number?" I asked surprised as I looked into the hallway to make sure that no one was there before shutting the door.

"Alison."

That traitor...

"What did you tell your mom?" He asked.

"I told her that I _thought _I saw one of the Flock and I went flying after them. I then told her that it was just a large bird...and now she thinks that I ditched school for the rest of the day."

He snickered. "So I guess you're grounded too?"

"Uh-huh. What did you tell your mom?"

"I played hooky."

I mentally hit my forehead with the palm of my hand.

"So, why are you calling?"

"To make sure that you didn't blow it."

"What? Why would I blow it?" I asked in disbelief. "You don't trust me?"

"Nope, not one bit," Fang joked and I wished that I could whack him through the phone.

"Max?" I heard Ella shout from somewhere outside my room.

I sighed.

"F-Nick, I have to go, my sister wants me," I muttered as I poked my head around the door and looked around for her.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye."

"Bye."

I hung up my phone and went and sat on my bed. "Yeah, Ella?"

She bounded into my room and jumped onto my bed, making me bounce slightly.

"So, who were you talking to?" Ella asked as she looked 'innocently' at me.

"Nick," I replied truthfully.

Ella whistled. "You mean the boy that you keep blowing me off to walk home with?" She asked with an _innocent_ smile.

Wait, _innocent_ my wings.

"Maybe," I replied narrowing my eyes.

"And what about the other boy?" Ella asked as she rocked back and forth on her bottom.

"He's- wait, how did you know there was another boy?" I asked, my eyes narrowing even more.

"Thanks for the talk Max, got to go," she said quickly as she bolted out of my room giggling.

I got up and ran after her. "We're you spying on me?" I shouted over her giggling as she bounded down the stairs, me on her tail.

We then proceeded to run around the house, making mom yell at us to stop...which only caused us to keep going until I caught Ella by the wrist.

"Ella, have you been spying on me?" I asked as she struggled, but continued to laugh.

"Ella?"

"I haven't! I just saw you with them," she told me as she laughed.

"Max, just let her go," Mom said as she chuckled at the scene before her.

I sighed and let her go as she ran back up the stairs.

"FREEDOM!" she shouted and I laughed as I shook my head.

Little sisters sure were amusing.

+-+-+

The next morning, I managed to wake up early enough to meet Fang outside my house and we began walking to school together in a comfortable silence.

Ella always woke up earlier than me (earlier than Fang even) and she always walked to school first. Then, after school, she would always chat with her friends and take forever to leave and I'd end up leaving before her. So, we never really saw each other when we were walking to and from school.

So...why was she here now?

"You must be Nick," she said really cheerfully as she shook his hand. "I'm Ella, Max's sister."

He nodded and quirked his mouth into a half smile.

"I don't think that you've heard much about me – mainly because Max has been too rude to introduce us – but it's nice to meet you."

Nick smirked as he glanced at me and I glared at Ella.

"So now that I've _finally _met Nick, are you going to introduce me to the other guy, uh, Jeff?" Ella asked as she giggled. She was enjoying this way too much.

"Umm, sure Ella," I said, surprising her. "His house is down this street," I said pointing down the street that I knew Jeff lived down. "His house is number is forty-two. Why don't you go and knock on his door and introduce yourself?"

"Okay," Ella said excitedly as she ran off across the road and down his street.

Fang and I continued to walk.

"Max?" He asked after only a few moments.

"Yeah, Fang?"

"You do know that Jeff lives at number fifty-six, right?" Fang asked with a frown.

"I know," I said as an evil smile formed across my face. "It's payback for spying on me the day before last."

Fang smiled, showing perfect white teeth. "Well, whose house did you send her to then?"

At this, I felt my smile grow even bigger, if possible. "Sam's."

"Oh..."

Sweet, sweet revenge.

+-+-+

"Hey, Nick. Hey Max," Ali greeted us as we stopped at my locker. "You two look happy this morning."

Fang and I looked at each other before I quickly explained to her what happened with Ella. This caused us all to burst out laughing as Ali and I took out our books, and the three of us began walking to Fang's locker.

"Where is she now?" Alison asked when the laughter had died.

I shrugged. "Probably on her way to school. She's going to be really angry when I get home."

We stopped at Fang's locker and he began taking his books out.

"By the way, where were you two yesterday? I saw Jeff in science and he said that you hadn't met up with him in the morning," Ali said curiously.

"Well, I was sick and Nick was..." I trailed off as I looked at Nick in an accusing way and Ali giggled.

"Oh, that reminds me, have you seen Jeff this morning, Alison?" I asked her. "I thought for sure that we'd meet him on the way to school, but we didn't.

"No, I haven't seen him since science class yesterday. And..." She cut herself off as Fang shut his locker and the bell rang.

"What?" I asked, wanting her to continue.

"Nothing; it was nothing," she muttered as we began walking to class.

"Tell us," Fang said sounding curious.

"Guys, it's nothing," Alison replied impatiently as she stopped walking to look at both of us. "Now, come on, Max. We don't want to be late to Math now, do we?"

I mentally groaned. "Ali, of course we want to be late to math!"

She simply rolled her eyes at me before dragging me toward our math room.

**Me: Yeah....random**

**Iggy: Random, how?**

**Me: -shrugs- Well, I'm gonna go and write chapter 11, no, 12 of this story.**

**Iggy: As I said, she has the whole thing planned out. You guys just need to review and get her to update. Annoy her if need be**

**Me: -whacks with herring- Thanks, Iggy...**

**Iggy: No problem :D**

**Me: R&R?**

**Bell and Ig**


	7. Chapter 7: What's wrong with Jeff?

**Me: Well, my sister wants to use my laptop so she can go on MSN, so we'd better make this quick.**

**Iggy: -sighs- So, what can we talk about in thirty seconds?**

**Me: -shrugs- HAPPY NEW YEAR!**

**Iggy: -facepalm- Whatever. Let's just give her the laptop already**

**Me: -fine-**

**Enjoy the chapter :D (Sorry kind of a filler)**

The three of us met up at lunch break in the cafeteria and we sat down at a table together.

"Was Jeff in your math or geography class today, Nick?" I casually asked Fang and he shook his head.

"The teachers both marked him 'absent.'"

"He wasn't in my history class either," Alison said quietly while taking a sip of Coke.

I was about to say that he was probably sick or something when Fang spoke.

"Alison, you were going to say something before about Jeff. What was it?" He asked with his eyebrow raised.

Alison pushed her food around on her plate with her fork before answering. "He just seemed...different. Like, he wasn't himself."

"How do you mean?" I asked, leaning on my arms, pushing my tray of food slightly forward.

"He wasn't making jokes or smiling," she said thoughtfully. "He just seemed somewhat sad."

"I think that we should go to his house after school and see if he's okay," I said decisively as I began to eat.

Fang and Alison both nodded and we ate in silence for the rest of our break.

I noticed that Fang and I both devoured three trays of food, and Alison stared at us in shock as she only managed about half of the food on her tray.

But the main thought that kept running through my mind was:

_What was wrong with Jeff?_

+-+-+

The bell rang for the end my English class and I mentally cheered. School was over for the day and Ali, Fang and I were going to go to Jeff's house to make sure that he was okay.

I bolted out the door – skidding on the slippery floor as I did so – and ran right into Lissa.

"Watch where you're going you idiot!" She screamed at me as she quickly stood up and began fixing her perfect red hair.

If you could actually see people's ego, Lissa's would probably take up the whole freaking school...and the world...and the universe. But I digress.

I clenched my teeth and muttered an apology as I picked up my thick English text book and turned to walk in the other direction when she stepped in front of me.

Have I ever mentioned how much I hated Lissa? Well, not to sound too repetitive but every time I see her ugly face I want to punch her lights out.

"What?" I growled and upon seeing the slight fear in her eyes I tried not to smirk.

"I was just wondering," she said as she threw some of her hair over her shoulder. "If that guy you were with has a girlfriend."

I blinked.

"Because I think he's really hot," she added with a smirk.

_Calm down Max, resist the urge to punch her in the face. _I thought._ Wait, why do I care? Fang has a right to choose who he dates. I have no idea why I'm being such an idiot._

"No," I replied as calmly as I could. "He doesn't have a girlfriend. But, aren't you dating Sam?" I asked as my eyes widened.

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, but I'd dump him a few seconds for _Nick._"

_That Skank!_

I lifted my hand to slap her when someone strong and tanned grabbed my arm.

I looked up to see Fang glaring at Lissa. Had he heard our conversation?

"Come on, Max, we need to go and find out if Jeff is alright," he said, not taking his eyes from her.

I nodded and was about to lead him away when I heard Lissa snicker.

"What is it now?" I asked impatiently. Now both Fang and I were glaring daggers at her.

"You mean that new kid right? We took care of him," she said with an evil smile on her face.

"You what?" I shouted, causing a few uncertain glances at us from the other students.

"Nothing," Lissa muttered as she began to walk away.

Fang stepped forward and gripped her shoulder, roughly spinning her around until they were looking into each other's eyes – but not in a romantic way that you read about in stories. The look on Fang's face was murderous and it made Lissa step back slightly.

"What have you done?" Fang said darkly.

+-+-+

Fang and I ran away from the gates toward Jeff's street. After hearing what Lissa had done, the two of us had bolted out of the school, completely forgetting our bags from our lockers. I still had my English book with me, but that didn't stop me from running.

I couldn't believe that she could live with herself after she had done this to Jeff and tried to steal Fang from me...

Wait, forget I said that...

I rounded a corner and then ran down the driveway of number 56 and rapped on the door loudly.

A nice-looking blonde woman answered it and smiled at the two of us.

"Can I help you children?" she asked as she dried her hands on her apron. I could freshly baked cookies wafting out the door, and it seemed like she'd been cooking.

"Is Jeff home?" I asked politely.

The woman frowned in confusion. "Umm, no he isn't home yet. He should be still at school."

I glanced at Fang before looking back to the woman. "Thanks, we must have missed him when we began walking home. We'll go back and see if we can find him."

Fang and I then turned to walk back to our school.

"Wait," the woman said and I turned to face her again.

"Are you some of Jeff's friends?" she asked hopefully and I nodded.

"Yeah, we are. He's a nice kid. I'm Max and this is Nick," I said introducing us.

She held a hand to her chest and seemed like she was going to cry.

"Are you okay, Mrs..." Fang trailed off as he realised that he didn't know the woman's name.

"Mrs. Walker, and I'm fine, sweetie. I'm just happy that Jeff has some friends. He's always had trouble making friends at his other schools."

Suddenly everything clicked.

"Well, Mrs. Walker, you don't have to worry about Jeff. He's got good friends looking out for him," I said with a smile.

+-+-+

"Fang, I'll meet you outside your house in an hour," I said as we left Jeff's street.

"What? No, I'm coming with you," he said stubbornly as he turned to look at me.

I rolled my eyes. "Fang, you sound so freaking protective."

"I'm not being protective, I just want to help you find Jeff!"

I smiled, he _still_ hadn't figured it out yet.

"You still haven't figured it out yet, have you?" I asked with a smirk.

He just stared blankly at me. "What?"

I sighed. "Fang, please just let me handle this," I paused. "Please."

I looked up into his eyes and begged him to let me go with my gaze, he nodded.

I smiled and hugged him, holding him for a minute longer than I should have before I turned and took to the air in the direction of our school.

**Heather: Get off the laptop and give it to me **

**Me: ...**

**Iggy: ...**

**Me: Okay...**

**R&R? **

**I know that it's just a filler, but can you please review :D You find out what happened to Jeff in the next chapter :D**

**Iggy: Whoopee**

**Me: ...**

**Iggy: -headdesk-**

**Heather: GET OFF!!!!**

**Me: Eep.**

**Bell and Ig :D**


	8. Chapter 8: Iggy!

**Me: Okay, so I had no inspiration today, but I'm updating this because I already have a prewritten chapter ready :D**

**Anyway, anyone interested in what happened to Iggy? No? Yes? Don't care? I'll tell you anyway. We've just been having an IPod war where we deleted the songs off each others IPods and put on crappy songs. So, now I'm not talking to him. Grr...**

**Okay, now that I've had my rant about the annoying blind Pyro. I had a lot of trouble writing this chapter (don't know why) so I hope that it worked out alright. -shrugs- Sorry for any mistakes. I'm just not into it enough to focus too much on editing.**

**Anyway...**

I began my search by walking around the school, stopping by my locker to put my math book away and get my bag. The whole time that I was walking down the hall, I was poking my head around every door and window to see if Jeff was there. However, he was nowhere to be seen in my side of the building, so I went to check Fang's.

I walked to the other side of the school to Get Fang's bag out for him. (_Geez, am I, like, his slave or something?)._ I swung the bag over my shoulder, so that I had one bag on each shoulder, and then continued walking after closing his locker door with a loud 'Bang!' that echoed through the silent hallways.

After that, I realised that Jeff wasn't in the building, so the next place to try was around the back of the school grounds – where some of the students played sport on the oval or ate lunch at the tables.

I walked out the back doors of the building and looked around at the dark green, grassy oval that was at least 700 meters wide. It was completely void of any people – for once – and it was quiet as a dark alleyway on a cold night. My eyes then flickered to the wooden tables – also empty – and then to the back fence.

Nothing.

I was about to turn and head back inside when I saw one last place that I'd missed. If my theory was correct, he'd probably be there.

I ran across the oval to a small group of trees that existed on the right side. They'd been there forever and last month there had been a petition to stop Principal Lockyer from cutting them down. Every student in the school loved these trees and people often took shade under them at lunch break or afterschool sometimes – but obviously not today. It was as if the place was quarantined or something and everyone had to briskly leave.

I walked under one of the smaller trees and looked up between the branches in the hopes of seeing Jeff. I walked a little further until I spotted the biggest tree of them all, hidden away by the smaller trees. I pushed through the shrubbery with my arms as I walked up to the enormous trunk and laid my hand on it. I tilted my head towards the sky until I was looking directly up the rough trunk and peered through the branches. I then walked around the outside of the trunk, keeping my head tilted up and my hand on the trunk until I spotted a pair of legs in old, tattered jeans.

Jeff.

Upon another inspection I also noticed something else – it was near impossible to _climb _this tree. The lowest branch on the tree was four meters off the ground, and unreachable without a ladder. So, unless Jeff was lugging around a ladder with him, there was only one other way he could have gotten so high up.

I opened up my wings and jumped straight up into the air, flapping a few times to get myself on the lowest branch. I landed rather un-gracefully on it and then took both bags off my shoulders and hung them on a sturdy looking branch. I then began my long climb to the top.

"Hello? Who's there?" Jeff asked, his voice faltering a little.

"Relax, Jeff, it's only me," I said and grunted as I quickly pulled myself onto another branch.

I kept my momentum going until I was almost at the peak of the tree. Jeff's bright red top and worried face now came into view as well.

"Can you just go away?" Jeff asked irritably, but I continued my climbing.

"I just want to make sure that you're okay," I said as a branch broke on impact with my foot and my feet flailed around until I found another sturdier branch. "And you're not making it easy to do so."

"I know," he said quietly. "I'm fine, so you can go away now."

"Nice try," I grounded out as I pulled myself up onto a branch opposite Jeff, and I plonked my bottom on it. "But I'm not going anywhere until we've had a talk."

"Well, in that case..." Jeff didn't bother finishing his sentence; instead he began climbing back down the tree again at a lightning-like speed.

"Jeff!" I scolded as I followed him.

"I told you to leave me alone!" He shouted as he continued to swing down the branches like a monkey.

I sighed. I knew that there was only one way to make him listen to me...to trust me.

"Iggy!" I shouted and he stopped dead in mid-swing, hanging from a branch around three quarters of the way down the tree.

He moved his foot slowly forward until he found a foothold and then stood on it, turning his face up toward me.

"W-what?" he stuttered in absolute shock.

I began to make my way down the tree...

"_We need some kind of a secret handshake or something – something that only we will know," I said as I looked at the two five year old boys in turn in their cages._

"_Why?" Fang asked as if the idea was absurd, which it wasn't._

"_Because then we'll have something that is ours. The whitecoats think they can take whatever they want from us but they won't be able to take something like a handshake away," I said with a smile, liking the idea more and more as I repeated it._

"_Okay," Iggy said slowly. "What did you have in mind?"_

_I thought for a moment before squeezing my skinny left hand between the bars of my dog crate, then turning it into a fist. The boys just looked at me like I was crazy._

"_Put yours on top," I told them and they did as they were told. "Then you tap the backs of the other hands," I said as I demonstrated and the boys smiled as they did the same._

"_This is ours," I said decisively. "And nothing and nobody can take it away from us."_

Once again I sat on a branch next to Iggy and looked at him with a small smile.

"Why did you call me that?" he asked shakily.

I reached out and gently took his hand, making him slightly jump from the sudden touch. I then made his fingers curl into a fist and I stacked my hand on top of his. His lips curled into a small smile as he tapped the back of my hand and I did the same.

"So, _Iggy, _are you willing to talk to me _now_?" I asked and he smirked.

"I think so..."

**Me: You know what? I think that this chapter is way to short, so I'm gonna give you another one ;) Keep in mind, that this is like two chapters in one!**

I decided to start with the obvious.

"Iggy, it's me, Max. AKA: Maximum Ride. Remember?" I asked and he rolled his sightless eyes.

"You think that I could have forgotten _you_? Not a chance," he said as he lightly rocked back and forth on his branch.

"What about Fang?" I asked as I raised my eyebrows. Damn, I never could get the hang of raising only one eyebrow – it was a Fang thing.

"I remember him too. He had dark hair and eyes and was often very quiet?"

"That's him. Well, he goes by the name 'Nick' now," I said.

Iggy hit his forehead with the palm of his hand and I smirked. "I should have recognised you two sooner! I knew that Nick seemed familiar!"

I laughed. "Well, he hasn't changed much. You on the other hand..."

"What? How have I changed?" he asked with a sceptical smile.

"What happened with Lissa?" I asked quietly and his smile instantly vanished.

He stared off into space, not even attempting to face me like he usually does, and didn't say anything.

"Ig, this is _me _you're talking to. Not 'Max,' the girl that you just met two days ago. I mean the girl that you saw as your family back at the school, the girl who looked after you when you lost your sight, the girl that you used to make laugh when a situation looked bleak, the girl that you trusted with your life. You can still trust me. It may have been six years, but I'm still Max and you're still Iggy – we can still talk about anything," I said to him as I laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Max, nothing's wrong," he said stubbornly and I sighed.

"Fine then, am _I_ going to have to tell _you _what's wrong then?" I asked as I crossed my arms. I was just as stubborn as he was and he wasn't about to win.

"Fine then," he said as he threw his hands up in the air. "She was being annoying, so I came up in this tree to think. Then you came up here and gave me the shock of my life. Happy?"

"No, I'm not," I replied. "Why won't you tell me?"

"Because it's none of your business!" he shouted and I looked blankly at him.

"Well, can you at least tell me what happened after Fang and I left?" I asked quietly.

"Nudge, Gazzy, Angel and I sat there in our cages for a few hours. We weren't sure if you had seriously left the school, or if it was all some elaborate hoax and they'd killed you or something," he explained as his knuckles became white from gripping the branch too hard. "I was the next to go. Anne Walker came and took me away to New York and we lived there for a while. She then decided that there was 'nothing left for her there,' as she put it, and we went to LA. I can't remember how many times we moved after that, but we ended up here."

"Are you going to move again?" I asked, my heart beating as I realised that I could lose him again.

"No," he answered curtly. "I think that Anne wants to stay here."

"Good. Now, come on, I think that we've kept Fang waiting long enough."

Iggy snickered and then smiled evilly at me.

"What?"

"You and Fang," he said as he wiggled his eyebrows while laughing.

I scoffed. "Right, and you and Alison."

He stopped laughing at that.

"No way," he said as he crossed his arms.

"Whatever you say, Igs," I said as I jumped out of the tree and flapped my wings to keep myself in place next to Iggy.

"You coming?" I asked as I flew down a few feet to pick up the two school bags off the branch.

He nodded and then jumped out of the tree with me, spreading a pair of fourteen foot wings. **(AN: Sorry about the lack of discription but there hasn't been much description on Iggy's wings, and I don't plan on contradicting the books)**

The two of us then began to fly towards my street. Since it was in walking distance from our school, it took even less time to fly. Maybe only about forty seconds tops.

I looked around cautiously before I landed on the sidewalk, next to Fang who had a shocked look on his face.

"So, Jeff is..." he trailed off as he looked at a very smug Iggy.

"Yeah, dude, It's me, Iggy," he said with a smirk as he held out his hand.

Fang took it and they shook like old friends – which, I guess they were.

"In our science class he introduced himself as 'Jeff Walker,' I explained to Fang. "And just before, we met Anne Walker, the woman that we discussed yesterday. You were just too slow to figure it out."

"Hey! There could have been a million Mrs. Walker's," Fang retorted. "You could have gone and talked to Jeff, thinking that it was Iggy, and it could have been some random person."

"But it wasn't," I replied with a smirk and Iggy laughed.

"She has a point, man," Iggy said through his laughter.

Fang sent a death glare at me, and the whacked Iggy across the back of the head.

"Ow! You shouldn't hit the blind kid, that's not nice!"

"Neither is laughing at me," Fang muttered as he took his bag from my arms and turned to walk towards his house. However, he stopped abruptly and turned to look at us with an anxious expression.

I looked past him to see Lissa standing on the corner of our street, arms crossed, with her whole 'gang' behind her.

"So, I see that you found Jeff then."

Crap.

**Me: Please review. I know that the first chapter wasn't really that good, but I liked the second one!**

**Please...**

**Review...**

**Maybe?**

**Bell and Ig :D**


	9. Chapter 9: Die Lissa, DIE!

**Me: Don't ask me why I'm updating this again. I'm just very, very bored right now and need something to do.**

**Iggy: Turn off the bloody music!**

**Me: -laughs- Iggy _hates_ Alvin and the Chipmunks so I've been playing it all afternoon. I really think that he's annoyed...**

**Iggy: You think???**

**Me: At least I fixed your IPod!**

**Iggy: After you replaced all the songs with Chipmunk songs...**

**Me: Hey, I had to fix mine too after you replaced my songs with Cat Stevens and Ben Lee -shudders-**

**Iggy: No offence to all of those Cat Stevens and Ben Lee lovers...**

**Me: But my Dad plays them too much for my liking and I really don't like them...**

**Iggy: -sighs- Well done, now you have to add another diclaimer...**

**Me: Damnit!**

**Diclaimer: I don't own Alvin and the Chipmunks, Cat stevens or Ben Lee**

**Iggy: Why would you _want to_ own Ben Lee and Cat Stevens???**

**Me: Exactly my point! Anyway, on with the chapter! DIE LISSA DIE!!!**

**Iggy: 0_o**

**Me: Sorry, ahem, I just had a random spark of hate for a minute...**

**Iggy: Right....**

Lissa stood there looking at the three of us, a huge smirk on her face. She stood directly in front of her little 'gang' of kids and it looked like they were posing for a photo shoot or something. Lissa was in the front, her hair blowing across her face from the slight breeze, arms crossed, feet apart, and evil smile on her face.

Behind her on the left was a very tall girl with her light brown hair tied back. She stood in the same stance as Lissa, but she had her arms down her sides. I think that her name was Tess. Yeah, that's it.

On Lissa's right, stood Sam. He had a thin, tight top on, showing his muscles bulging underneath. His eyes were mainly focused on me but he was sending me daggers the whole time.

Then there was a really, really big, burly guy behind the three of them. He was at least two heads taller than all of them, and he had dark brown hair with matching glaring eyes. He was Lissa's X boyfriend, Tim (what a wimpy name for such a buff guy). After they broke up, they stayed friends, and now he followed her around everywhere like a freaking sheep.

As I said before, they looked like they were posing for a poster or something. I was so tempted to take a camera out and take a picture. I could probably scare small children.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Iggy clench his fists and take three steps back. It seemed like he was afraid.

I placed a hand on his shoulder and looked back at the group.

"What do you want?" Fang asked commandingly, stepping in front of our little cohort.

"Oh, so big and scary," Lissa said with a laugh. "Your breathing my air, get out of the way!"

I rolled my eyes. "Since when are you queen of the universe?"

"Since we had our last election and I won, Maxie," she retorted.

"And when was that?" I shot back. "Septober 32nd on the day that doesn't end in 'Y?'" **(AN: I heard that one from . I also don't own that ;))**

Lissa glared at me, probably realising that she was losing – badly. "Why don't you and Nick run off and play while the big kids work out their differences," she said as she glanced at Iggy.

"Why don't you go and stuff your head in a toilet – it would be a _huge _improvement if you ask me," I said with a snarl and I saw her eyes flicker with rage.

"Why are even bothering to stand up for the _blind freak_ anyway?" she asked angrily, now actually insulting Iggy to his face. He took another hesitant step back.

Okay, insults directed at _me _I could take. But as soon as someone insults any of my flock, I crack it.

"And you're _not _a freak, Lissa? You spend your time afterschool picking on a new kid!" I shouted at her and she smirked as she took a step forwards, standing next to Fang, but directing her evil eyes at Iggy.

"I told you before, why don't you get out of here? Nobody likes you, and you're a freak with no friends, so why are you still here, Loser?" She taunted mockingly and Iggy stepped back again.

Then, before I had time to register what was happening, Lissa's head snapped to the side and her face went red.

He mouth opened to form an 'O' and she slowly turned her head to glare at me.

Yes, without thinking I had slapped Lissa right across the face, and she wasn't happy – but I sure was.

"Now," I breathed. "Why don't you go home and leave us alone?" I said as I looked over my shoulder at Iggy who seemed very shaken, and then back at Fang who stared impassively at the two of us.

Lissa swallowed and then looked back at her three sheep. "Tim," she growled and he stepped out from behind the pack, glaring menacingly at me.

This time I was the one to take a step back, but I wasn't afraid. I got myself into a fighting stance and was about to pounce when Fang beat me to the punch.

He jumped up and punched Tim in the jaw, only making him stagger – which was amazing. Normally, if we punched a normal human, it would knock them out cold, but this guy kept on coming.

He threw a punch at Fang's head but Fang managed to duck and side-kick him in the chest, making the air leave him. This seemed to give Tim a new burst of rage as he lunged for Fang again, knocking him to the ground with one swift blow to the side of his head. Fang sat up on the concrete and rolled to the side, just as 'All Brawn, No Brains' hammered a fist onto the sidewalk where Fang's head originally was.

Fang then leapt onto his feet and kicked him roughly in the stomach, making him gag and drop to his knees. Fang then brought his leg around, aiming for his head, only stopping when Tim grabbed his ankle and twisted his leg to the side. Upon hearing it pop, Fang grunted in pain and Tim swung his fist out to knock Fang off his feet again. As Fang cracked his head on the sidewalk, Tim stood and took a few steps towards him.

This time, Fang didn't get up.

Tim stood there, looming over him like a building, staring down at him. He lifted his big boot to start kicking him, when I jumped up and roundhouse kicked him in the head, making him fall over. I then ran over and proceeded to punch him continuously in the face until he was out cold.

I began to pant as I turned to Lissa, my foot throbbing from it connecting with his rock-hard head, and glared at her. Then, she fainted on the sidewalk, Sam rushing over to help her.

Nobody said a word, no one needed to.

There were two unconscious boys on the sidewalk, and Fang and I had just beaten up the toughest guy in school.

I turned to Iggy who was standing very still looking like a bed sheet. I walked over to him and lightly patted his arm, making him jump.

"Help me carry Fang," I whispered just loudly enough for him to hear and he stiffly nodded.

I gently picked up his legs at the knees – careful of his injured leg – and Iggy slid his arms under Fang's as we walked a few meters to my house.

I held both his feet with one arm as my other hand searched my pocket for my keys. I pulled them out and then unlocked the door, opening it and then shuffling inside. I wordlessly lead Iggy into the living room and put Fang on the sofa. I bent down on my knees near his head and stroked his hair out of his face gently before lightly placing my hand on his forehead.

_What was I doing? I should have helped him instead of standing there like an idiot!_

"Max."

I turned around and looked at Iggy who was standing awkwardly in the room as he drummed his fingers on his jeans.

I stood up from Fang's side and gently took Iggy's hand, leading him to the couch opposite Fang.

"I'm sorry," he murmured as he dropped his head.

"What?" I asked him confused. "What do you have to be sorry for?"

But he didn't answer my question. "Everywhere I go the same thing happens..."

It seemed like he was talking to himself more than me.

I opened myself to reply but was interrupted by something that I had completely forgotten to acknowledge.

"Max! What's going on?" Ella asked as a worried expression came across her face.

**Me: DUN DUN DUUUUUN!!!**

**Iggy: Yeah, such a dramatic end to the chapter -facepalm-**

**Me: Okay, I bet that some of you are wondering how this 'Tim' guy beat up Fang. There's something about him that you need to find out later, so please don't mention in a review that you think that Fang could beat him easily and whatever. I have a few tricks up my sleeve and you have to be patient ;)**

**Iggy: Greeeeaaaatttt, can we go and do something else now?**

**Me: -sings- OO EE OO AH AH, TING TING WALLA WALLA BING BANG-**

**Iggy: WOULD YOU TURN IT OFF???????**

**Me: hehe, annoying him is sooo much fun ;)**

**Iggy: -sighs-**

**R&R!?**

**Sorry for the long Authors notes. Oh, and btw, there is a really cute Fax scene coming up. I love reading it and I'm sure that you will too. Just be patient ;)**

**Bell and Ig**


	10. Chapter 10: Faxness

**Me: YAY! FAXNESS!**

**Iggy: -facepalm-**

**Me: I love this chapter and Rain (AKA Rainbow Strike) said it was cute, so I'm happy :)**

**Iggy: Even though she hardly got any sleep last night...**

**Me: Yeah...I'm trying to keep up my hyperness for the readers sake**

**Iggy: It's not working you sound like you died, got resurected and then died again**

**Me: Well, that's pretty much how I feel too**

**Iggy: Well, I'd say that you _look _dead too, but that would be redundant**

**Me: Yeah, and nobody would believe you**

**Iggy:...point**

**Me: Let's just start the chapter...**

"Uh," I looked from Iggy who was sitting next to me looking really confused, to Fang who was unconscious on the sofa, to Ella who looked like she was about the start screaming, or crying or something.

And, once again for the second time this week, I had nothing!

So, I did something that Maximum Ride hardly ever does.

I told the truth.

Halfway through my story, Ella had to sit down on the ground to absorb the shock but she stayed quiet for the whole story until the end.

"So, t-they're F-fang and Iggy f-from six years ago?" Ella stuttered from her place on the floor as she looked at Fang and Iggy.

Iggy sighed as he stood up from the sofa, and extended his wings a tiny bit, just enough to show Ella and not knock anything over.

Ella just silently stared. "Okay then."

When Iggy felt the awkwardness in the room, he sat down again beside me, his wings quickly pressing themselves against his back once more.

I then stood up quickly and knelt down next to Fang again. I carefully rolled up the bottom of his tattered jeans and heard him moan in his sleep as I looked at his knee.

"I think it's dislocated," I said with a sigh, seeing that his knee was bent at an odd angle.

I looked up at his face and saw it was twisted with pain and he was very pale. I began to stoke his forehead again with my hand and he relaxed a bit.

"You're an idiot, you know that," I murmured quietly into his ear as Iggy came to join me on my left side – closer to Fang's legs.

Carefully, he reached out slowly and laid a hand on top of his friend's knee. He then ran his light fingers of the top of it, making Fang moan again.

"Shh," I whispered soothingly as I continued to stroke his head gently, running my hands through his dark hair.

"Max, hold his hand," Iggy instructed as he grabbed Fang's leg in his left hand and his thigh in his right.

I nodded as I realised what he was about to do. I continued to stroke his head lightly with one hand, and reached down to hold his hand with the other.

I watched Iggy with interest as he twisted it quickly and I heard a 'pop' as the bones realigned. Fang's face visibly relaxed.

Iggy ran his fingers over his knee again and nodded in satisfaction.

"Nice job, Dr. Iggy," I said with a smirk and he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I know, I'm awesome," Iggy said smugly as he leaned back to lie down on the floor – only to bang his head on the coffee table.

Ella and I laughed as Iggy sat up, rubbing his head. He then leaned back again and hit his head on the sofa.

"Ow!" Iggy exclaimed with a smile and Ella and I laughed even harder. Eventually Iggy joined in too and we were all laughing.

"Waz so funny an' why am I missin' it?" I heard Fang mumble from beside me and we all stopped laughing to look at Fang.

His eyes drowsily darted around the room, processing what he was seeing before they stopped on me. They then moved down my arm to my hand – which was still holding tightly onto his hand.

Embarrassed, I quickly pulled away and tried not to blush as I changed the subject.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like a truck ran over me, and then backed up onto me again," he muttered.

"So, you feel great then?" Iggy asked with a smirk.

Fang picked up a pillow and then threw it across the room, successfully hitting him in the head in the exact same place that he'd bumped his head a few minutes before.

"Oh, come on!" Iggy shouted as he rubbed his head. This caused everyone to start laughing _again_.

Fang tried to get up, but I gently pushed him back down.

"Fang, you need to rest. You dislocated your knee and Iggy had to pop it back into place," I explained gently as I sat on the end of the sofa.

"Oh, so _that _was the pain that I felt while I was sleeping," he mumbled and Iggy snickered.

"Speaking of which, I should probably wrap that up to stop it from popping out again," I said as I got up and walked to the kitchen in search of the first aid kit.

"Yes, Mom!" Iggy shouted from inside the living room.

I made a mental note to hit him later.

I also made a mental note to ask him what was wrong. And this time I was going to get an answer.

+-+-+

While I was working on Fang's knee, we quickly called Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Janssen to tell them that Fang and Iggy were sleeping over and then walking to school with us tomorrow morning. I'd sent Ella and Iggy to go and pick up the boys' bags, which the two Wemen had packed for them, before mom got home from work – she always worked late on Thursday's, thank God.

So that just left me and Fang.

I was sitting on the Sofa with Fang's legs lying over the top of mine so I could finish bandaging his knee up.

"So, you think I'm an idiot?" Fang asked as he stared at the ceiling.

I abruptly stopped bandaging his leg and looked over at him. "You heard that?"

He nodded.

I continued to wrap the fabric around his knee. "I could have handled it. You didn't have to jump in like that; you could have gotten seriously injured."

I watched as Fang rolled his eyes and I put a clip on the bandage to hold it in place.

"Done," I said as I began to roll down Fang's jeans again. He winced.

"Sorry," I said apologetically and, with his legs still on top of mine, he sat up.

I was about to push him back again when he grabbed my hand and stopped me. He looked at me with his dark eyes and I stared back.

"You..." he trailed off, his eyes looking away from mine for a moment.

"What?" I asked impatiently.

"You...you so couldn't oh handled that battle," he said as he lay back on the cushions.

_Was he about to say something else?_

"Well, do you remember what happened after you blacked out?" I asked, crossing my arms across my chest.

He just stared at me.

"I kicked his butt," I continued smugly.

He rolled his eyes at me and looked up at the ceiling again.

"Thanks," I muttered as I looked away from him, but I could feel his gaze on me again.

"No problem. Just promise me something," he said as he sat up again and we locked eyes once more. "Promise me...that you'll always remember who saved your butt."

I picked up the closest pillow and then whacked him across the head.

"Ow," he moaned, but not in a joking way. He lay down and clutched his head in his hands.

"Fang? Are you alright? Fang? Fang?" I said tensely, putting a hand on his arm and gently rubbing it.

He then opened his eyes and smiled at me making my heart beat faster, then I realised what he had done and whacked him with the pillow again.

"No, seriously Max, my head really hurts! Stop it!" he exclaimed in between me hitting him.

"I see that you guys are having fun."

I stopped hitting him and turned to face Ig and Ella who had shown up with the bags.

"No, Iggy, you don't _see_ anything," I mocked and he glared at me.

"Max, Mrs. Walker gave me a movie to watch. Do you want me to put it on?" Ella asked as she bounded happily into the room.

I nodded and she squealed as she shoved 'Iceage' into the DVD player.

Iggy sat down on the floor and leaned against the sofa, putting his head against my legs – probably by accident but he obviously couldn't be bothered moving. After that, the four of us watched the movie until we all fell asleep.

**Me: There's the small Fax scene - will be more as the story goes.**

**Iggy: Great**

**Me: EGGY! **

**Iggy: I thought it was Aggy?**

**Me: Alison...**

**Iggy: which one is it?**

**Me: All in good time, young grasshopper**

**Iggy: I'm not a fnicking grasshopper**

**Me: You are a grasshopper with wings, hehe**

**Iggy: -facepalm-**

**Me: Okay, R&R!? Now I'm going back to sleep**

**Iggy: Good. And when you wake up I hope you're nicer**

**Me: -growls-**

**Iggy: Uh....**

**Bell and Ig**


	11. Chapter 11: Irked

**Me: Well, that's it for all my pre-written chapters. So, if this writers block would just go away I would be very happy and I could continue to write this!**

**Iggy: You told me that you know what's going to happen in the next chapter though**

**Me: Not in the next chapter, in the chapter after that!**

**Iggy: Oh...**

**Me: Did you know that Skits told me that we fight like a married couple**

**Iggy: We what!?**

**Me: -laughs- I got a reaction out of that one**

**Iggy: Why?**

**Me: Because she and her Iggy seem to get along perfectly well and then there's us...**

**Iggy: And we seem to argue almost all the time**

**Me:...pretty much**

**Iggy: -facepalm-**

**Me: Oh, and someone said that we facepalm a lot and I would like to give a reason for that. I believe that it's because I know a lot of people, including Iggy, that say things that I have nothing to say back to...ecxept I really feel the urge to hit myself in the head at their statement.**

**Iggy: And when someone tells her something that is worthy of hitting herself on the head, she'll actually find a wall or a table and bash her head against it...**

**Me: I can't help it. I do it anyway...**

**Iggy: Are we gonna go on with the story?**

**Me: We could just turn this into Iggy Ramblings**

**Iggy:.....no**

**Me: -laughs- Alright, more Fax coming up in a few chapters, but the chapter before this one is where it all begins :D:D:D I'm glad you all are enjoying it**

**_Note to Skits if she's reading this: The 'irked' convo is in this chaoter ;)_**

I woke up the next morning and couldn't remember where I was. I looked around in a daze, seeing Ella on the floor in front of the TV, Iggy leaning against my legs while sitting on the floor, and Fang lying on the sofa with his legs still on top of mine. In a sudden flash, I remembered what had happened the day before and why we were all here. I blinked a few times and rubbed my eyes to clear the sleep out of them as I realised that Fang, Iggy, Ella and I all had blankets on top of us.

Well, mom had obviously come home last night.

I looked behind the television to see the clock read 6:50am. I sighed as I slowly leaned over and gently shook Fang awake.

He opened his eyes lazily and looked around the room before his eyes stopped on me. I pointed to the clock and he looked at it before nodding and carefully swinging his legs over the side of the sofa.

"Iggy," I muttered as I kicked him lightly in the back and he turned his head around.

Not bothering to open his eyes, he mumbled "Waz the time?"

"Six fifty-two," I replied and stretched my muscles.

Iggy moaned and lay down on the floor, until Fang kicked his head and he sat up again. "Alright, alright, I'm up!"

After hearing Iggy, Ella also woke up and glanced over at the three of us.

"Morning," she said cheerfully and Iggy and I groaned in response while Fang snickered.

"I guess it's time we got up," Fang muttered as he stood up and stretched his arms too.

He didn't say anything about his knee, but I could see him slightly wobbling as he stood and I sighed.

"Sit down," I commanded and he just stared blankly at me while Iggy snickered.

"Yeah, Nick, sit down. You need to listen to your girlfriend," he said as he leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest.

"She's not my girlfriend," he replied quickly as he shot a quick glance at me and I rolled my eyes.

I turned and walked out of the room as the two boys had some kind of an argument in the living room. I walked into the kitchen to find mom sitting at the table drinking a cup of coffee.

"Morning, Max. I guess you never bothered to tell me that we were having houseguests," she said as she took another sip.

"Sorry, it was kind of unexpected for myself," I replied as I ran a hand through my tangled hair. "We were walking home from school and Nick tripped and fell on his knee. It was dislocated and Jeff had to pop it back into place – that's why we didn't want to move him from here to his house."

"Oh dear," Mom exclaimed as she put her coffee mug back on the table. "Is he alright? Have you told his mother?"

"No, not yet. We were going to tell her after school, but for today I don't know if he's going to be able to walk on it," I explained as I looked at her expectantly.

Mom sighed. "I think that I have a pair of crouches stashed somewhere," she muttered as she got up and walked out of the room.

"Thanks," I called after her as I turned and followed her out of the kitchen, turning into the living room instead of going up the stairs like she did.

Fang and Iggy were still quietly arguing about something in hushed tones and I cleared my throat, making them both turn towards me.

"So, who wants breakfast?" I asked cheerfully.

Fang was about to say something when Ella interrupted him.

"NO!" she shouted, looking desperately at me. "You're not cooking are you?"

"Why?" Iggy asked curiously. "You make it sound like she's making us poison."

"That pretty much sums up what she can make," Ella mumbled and I sent her a glare. "Don't let her near the stove!"

"Well, it looks like I'm making breakfast," Iggy said happily as he stood up again and looked at me expectantly.

"Nice one, Ig," I joked but he didn't crack a grin like he usually did.

"No," he said, serious tone in play. "I'm being serious. Just show me where the stove is, and I'll make breakfast."

I looked at Fang sceptically and he shrugged.

I then sent him a look that said;_ 'Thanks for the help.'_

He simply grinned at me, making me smile like an idiot back at him.

I took hold of Iggy's arm and lead him to the kitchen, stopping in front of the stove. I then showed him the fridge and the cupboard, and he dismissed me.

"If you manage to blow up the stove, mom will kill you," I told him sternly before I left. He just smirked at me as I walked back into the living room again and sat on the couch next to Fang.

"I bet you that you have more of a chance of blowing up the stove than Iggy does," Ella said with that fake innocent look that she always seemed to use on me. I heard Iggy snort from inside the kitchen.

Stupid, blind, birdkid with freakishly good hearing...

"Is she really that bad?" Fang asked as he glanced at Ella.

"You have no idea. The last _thing _that she made gave me food poisoning for two weeks!"

Fang looked at me with slight horror playing across his features.

I looked away as I recalled the memory. Mom didn't let me near the stove ever again after I made Ella sick. She still let me use the microwave though...until I blew it up after trying to make popcorn.

Wow, maybe I really _was_ a bad cook.

Mom came in a few minutes later and handed the crouches to Fang. He sent me a glare and I smirked at him.

"You must be Nick," Mom said with a smile as she held out her hand. "I'm Dr. Martinez, Max's mom."

Fang politely shook her hand before mom looked around the room.

"Wasn't there another boy here last night?"

"Yeah," I answered. "His name's Jeff and he's making breakfast.

"Oh, so that was what I could smell from upstairs," she said with a smile.

I passed Fang his bag full of new clothes (we'd actually fallen asleep in our clothes from yesterday) and told him where the bathroom was so he could change. As he stood up and, using the crouches, began to limp down the hallway.

Ella and I walked upstairs towards our rooms. I grabbed a pair of track pants and a sleeveless top along with a towel before trudging back downstairs to the unoccupied bathroom.

_Wow, I guess Fang changes fast._ I thought as I walked in and locked the door. I then turned the shower on and lost myself to the hot water.

+-+-+

I walked happily into the kitchen where I could see mom, Ella, Iggy and Fang sitting at the table eating and talking happily. They had saved a place for me and there was a plate of eggs and bacon sitting on the table. I sat down and Ella beamed at me while Iggy smirked.

"Tell me what you think," he said as he shoved another round off eggs into his mouth, followed by some toast.

"I made the toast," Mom said as she winked at me.

I loaded food onto my plate with my fork and then began shovelling it into my mouth, remembering that I hadn't had dinner the night before.

_I think that this is the best bacon and egg breakfast that I have ever tasted! _I thought as I stopped and realised that everyone was waiting for my verdict.

"It's good," I said with a smile, not wanting to make Iggy's ego bigger than it already was.

"Good?" Ella asked in disbelief. "It's amazing!"

I watched Iggy shift uncomfortably as he blushed. Fang held back a snicker.

"Where did you learn to cook?" I asked as I continued to eat.

He just shrugged. "I just knew, I guess."

"Natural talent," Mom said with a smile.

"Yep, natural talent that Max will never have," Ella said with a large smirk across her face.

"Would everyone stop going on about my cooking abilities?" I asked in frustration, looking down at the empty plate.

Everyone was silent for a moment as they knew not to get me angry.

"What's the fun in that?" I heard Fang ask and I shot my head up to glare at him. I guess he was the only one that wasn't afraid of me at this point in time – but that would soon change.

"What?"

I just rolled my eyes – I wasn't in the mood for this.

"Enough arguing," Mom finally said as she began to clear the table. "You better get to school before you end up being late again."

I practically leapt out my seat and rushed out the door, Iggy, Ella and a limping Fang following behind me.

+-+-+

Iggy and Ella walked ahead as they chatted happily and I hung back so I could walk with Fang who seemed to be getting irritated from using the crouches.

"Having fun?" I asked with a smile.

He looked straight ahead and glared at nothing.

"Don't worry, you won't have to put up with me for long, today's the last day of school for the week and then you probably won't see me on the weekend."

"But then next week will come and I'll have to see you again. Do you know how much that...that...irks me?" Fang said in an annoyed tone which I saw right through.

"Irks?" I asked with a frown.

"I couldn't think of anything else," Fang muttered as we turned a corner, following Iggy and Ella's lead.

"Well, it really _irks _me that I'm irking you!"

Fang stopped limping and looked up at me with a confused expression.

"Fine then. It irks me that I irked you because you irked me. However, I'm sure that you won't be irked for long because I'm going to end up irking you and then I'll be irked for irking you in the first place," Fang said quickly before continuing to hobble toward the school gate.

That was about the longest and most confusing sentence that I had ever heard Fang say. Ever.

"You coming?" Fang asked as he looked over his shoulder and I sighed as I followed him.

**Me: Okay, I know that this was a filler chapter but it needed to be written! Mainly because something happens in the next chapter**

**Iggy: Something to do with me...Grrr**

**Me: Did you just growl?**

**Iggy: Yes?**

**Me: You really surprise me sometimes**

**Iggy: -smiles- I know**

**Me: People have been asking what was happening with Iggy and I plan on revealing that in the next chapter...but I need to stop it from being too mushy. Bleh**

**Iggy: Bell loves emotional things, but she hates it when convo's get too mushy...**

**Me: -nods- It just doesn't work for me. That's why I cut the Max/Iggy convo short**

**Iggy: You should have en-lengthened the Fax chapter**

**Me: Stop annoying me!**

**Iggy: "Where's the fun in that?"**

**Me: Stop quoting the fic!**

**Iggy: -rolls eyes-**

**Me: I'm just gonna end this before we end up in a fight again**

**Review?**

**Bell and Ig**


	12. Chapter 12: Hiatus

**Me: Hey, guys, it's me…**

**Iggy: And me…still here if you were wondering**

**Me: I bet they weren't**

**Iggy: -glares-**

**Me: Anyway, I've had a pretty crappy week I'm afraid, and I have a reason for the slow updates as well as a temporary hiatus that is about to happen -sighs-**

**Iggy: We're going to the beach!**

**Me: Uh-huh, and there is no internet connection there for two weeks, so there is no way that I'm gonna be able to update anything while I'm there.**

**And, the reason for the slow updates is that my laptop crashed So, I'm in distress because I've lost everything that I've been working on for a long time – that including an _Iggy Ramblings_ story that Ig and I were working on…**

**However, I have been lucky with _Six years past_ and haven't lost anything for that (so we'll see how I go).**

**Also, the updates may be slow because I need to use dad's computer and it's hard to type on the keyboard and I have to constantly look up at the screen because it's positioned really high above the keyboard…which makes life extremely frustrating!**

**Iggy: Llamas.**

**Me: What the hell?**

**Iggy: I hadn't said anything in a while**

**Me: Whatever, I really don't have time for this._ 'How long is forever'_ readers, expect an update soon. Unfortunately I don't know how soon -shrugs- With this computer not much is possible**

**'Songfic oneshots' readers, there will be an update after HLIF. I'll see how I go…and I think that's it**

**Iggy: E-shaped house pranks...**

**Me: -shrugs- No idea when that will be updated. I'll have to see if Rain has anything that I can use as that got deleted as well! I've lost everything, damnit...**

**Iggy: -sighs- Are you going to end it?**

**Me: -nods- Okay, sorry for the inconvenience and I'll update things asap**

**-Bell and Ig**


	13. Chapter 13: Iggy's secret

**Me: Okay, well, I'm still on hiatus (as I don't know when I'll be back on all the time again) but this may, or may not be the last chapter in a while. -sighs- I just really don't know if I'm going to be able to get on a computer any time soon.**

**Also, this computer is hard to type on and I had a lot of trouble coming up with this chapter (damn writers block) but I finally got it out and I'm putting it up**

**-sighs- So, I'm sorry if this chapter isn't to your liking, but I just found it hard to write...-sighs- Okay, I'm just gonna stop talking and let you read**

"Now, by following this rule can any of you work out the equation on the board? Anyone? Don't make me choose someone…"

I tapped my pencil quietly on the table and looked out the window as our teacher, Mr. Manning, continued to talk about things that I didn't care about in the slightest. The only good thing about Math class was that Alison, Iggy, Fang and I were all in it together – mainly because the boys requested to be moved so we could all be in a class together. I guess we never thought that all four of us would be bored to death in the class.

As I stared out the window, my wings seemed to ache against my back with longing as I looked at the crystal clear sky with the sun protruding down onto the grass. It was such a nice day and we didn't deserve to be kept inside.

I felt someone lightly tapping my shoulder impatiently and I slowly tore my eyes away from the window to see that it was Fang.

I took the scrunched up bit of paper that he had thrusted at me and slowly unfolded it in my hands.

_Did you notice someone missing today?_

I frowned at him and shook my head before he pointed to the desk near the back of the room. I turned my head slowly and saw Lissa glaring daggers at us, but Fang was pointing to the empty desk next to her – the desk where Tim normally sat. I turned my head back towards the front and smirked quietly to myself. That was one less person I had to worry about today.

My eyes flickered over to Alison and I could see that she was trying her best to focus on the class and failing miserably, almost falling asleep on her desk. Then, next to her was Iggy who was absently playing with a piece of paper in his long, pale fingers. I looked back at Lissa to see that her gaze had also moved from Fang and I, to Iggy. My nails dug into my palms as my eyes moved back to a very nervous looking Iggy, still playing with that piece of paper.

My raptor vision singled in on the paper and I could tell that there were words written on it, but I couldn't read them from here.

I lightly tapped Ali on the shoulder and she jumped slightly as she looked over at me.

'Get that piece of paper,' I mouthed to her and she frowned at me. I rolled my eyes as I pointed to Iggy and she slowly nodded.

'Why?' She mouthed back looking between the two of us. I didn't say anything and continued to point at him.

She tilted her head back in annoyance before whispering something to Iggy. He turned his head towards where I was sitting and shook his head vigorously but Ali grabbed the piece of paper from his grasp and plonked it on my desk. She then looked back at the teacher as if nothing had happened.

Iggy stifled a cry as I opened it up, almost ripping it in the process, and read it.

_You're gonna get it today, Blind boy._

It was indented in such a way that Iggy could read it easily by running his fingers across it. I fixed my eyes on the teacher again and wordlessly passed the note to Fang. I heard the paper being unfolded again and I glanced at Fang who kept his face emotionless as he read it. He then scrunched it up in his fist and didn't make eye contact with me again until the bell rang.

"You and Alison go and have lunch while I go and talk to Jeff," I whispered to Fang. He nodded as he silently limped over to her and whispered something in her ear.

Iggy had placed his head on the desk and he didn't look like he was going to move any time soon; even though everyone else in the class was rushing out of the room to go to lunch.

I grabbed a chair and placed it next to his desk as Mr. Manning addressed the two of us.

"Just remember to close the door on the way out, okay?" He said and I nodded, acknowledging him with a small smile. Sure, he talked about a lot about things that I didn't understand, but he was one of the nicest teachers in the whole school.

"Are you ready to tell me now?" I asked impatiently as my fingers drummed quietly on the desk.

He slowly raised his head and then leaned on his hand. "Max it doesn't-"

"Don't tell me that it doesn't matter, Iggy," I said angrily, clenching my fist. "It does matter. And the only way that I can help you is if you talk to me. Lissa is picking on one of my Flock, and I'm not about to stand by and let that happen."

A puff of air escaped his lungs before he continued. "Max, do you honestly still think that we're a Flock?

I gaped at him in surprise. What did he mean by that?

"We may have been a Flock six years ago, but right now…we're all broken and it just doesn't work!"

I was temporarily speechless, but it didn't take long before my voice came ack again. "Ever since I left the school," I began quietly, still unable to believe that I was admitting this to him. "I made a promise to myself that I was going to find the Flock, no matter what the cost. But, until now, my efforts have been fruitless." I paused for a second, chossing my words carefully. "But, even though that's the case, I'm not about to give up hope. And I'm surprised that you have. "

He nodded slowly as, to my surprise, tears rolled down his face.

"I first went to school in New York," he whispered, wiping his eyes before more tears fell. "They teased me a lot there until it got to a point where I punched the kid in the face. After that, no one would talk to me unless they were making fun of me. And whenever they did tease me, I'd just…freeze up. I'd keep having flashbacks from at the school and I wouldn't know what to do or what to say. I had no control over what I did anymore..."

I looked down at the desk as I listened and placed a light hand on his back, moving it up and down between his wings.

"When Mrs. Walker found out, she decided to move jobs, in the hopes that I'd be better off somewhere else. But wherever we went, the same thing happened over and over again. In the end, I just gave up in making friends and didn't bother with anyone…" When he finished, he took in a shaky breath and clenched his fists.

I waited for him to calm down a bit before I spoke. "You should have told me," I said quietly. "You don't have to go through this alone any more, Ig."

"I know," he said as he wiped his eyes again and sniffed. "But, I wish…"

"What?" I asked gently, not wanting to push him too far.

Suddenly realising that he was about to say something that he obviously didn't want to talk about, he closed up and turned away from me.

"Iggy, you can tell me," I pressed, kind of wanting this mushy moment to be over and done with.

"Sometimes I wish that I could see again," he said so softly that I barely caught it. He then rested his head on his hands and none of us said anything for a while. We just sat in comfortable silence until I decided to speak again.

"Well, there's no point in staying in our own little world of perfection forever," I muttered as I stood up, dragging him up by the arm with me. "We're sorting this out, now."

"Now? As in…right now!?" Iggy asked in shock as I pulled him out the door, shutting it behind me.

"Yep," I replied walking down the hall. "I have a plan, but you're going to have to trust me."

"Okay," Iggy said certainly as the two of us made our way into the cafeteria.

**Me: So, yeah. That's what was wrong with Iggy,**

**Iggy: you took long enough to get to the point**

**Me: Damn, I thought that I got rid of you when I told you to play with my brother**

**Iggy: -shrugs- Got bored**

**Me: -sighs- So, please review? I wan't really sure about this chapter, so I would like an opinion :D**

**-Bell and Ig**


	14. Chapter 14: Lissa get's it XD

**Me: Hey guys, I'm back...maybe**

**Iggy: -facepalm- So, you're still not sure!?**

**Me: Not really...school starts soon and I already have homework to finish, but I thought that I'd write another chapter for everyone :D**

**Iggy: You need to update your other stories**

**Me: What are you? My personal organiser?**

**Iggy: -shrugs-**

**Me: Okay, well, my laptop is fixed!! YAY!!! But I lost everything...and need to build it all up again, haha**

**Iggy: And you're laughing at this?**

**Me: Yup. Anyway, let's just get to the chapter now**

**Iggy: I'm cool with this**

Ig and I walked into the noisy cafeteria and got three trays of food (each) before finding Fang and Alison and sitting down next to them.

"So, what's up?" Alison asked, looking up from her spaghetti that she was skilfully winding around a fork.

"Nothing," I said as I began to dig into my food. Fang looked between me and Iggy and raised his eyebrows at me. I shrugged and looked back down at my tray.

"So, what's the plan?" Iggy asked finally as he began devouring his second tray of food, Fang on his third and me just finishing my first.

"You'll have to wait and see," I said, looking over at Lissa and her 'posy.'

"What's the plan for?" Alison asked, completely confused as to what we were talking about.

"We're going to get Lissa back."

"Why?" She asked, also turning her head to see Lissa, who was now looking over at us with her icy gaze.

"For being a bitch," Fang muttered and I kicked him while Alison and Iggy chuckled to themselves.

"What? She is." He replied stabbing some chicken with his fork as if it was Lissa's head.

"What have you guys got against her?" Ali asked, pushing her half eaten tray away, now interested in the conversation.

I pointed my head towards Fang and he glared at me harshly. "Where do you think Tim is today? She got him to attack F-nick and they both ended up getting hurt," I stumbled over Fang's name, almost letting out his real name. I heard Iggy mutter 'Fnick' under his breath and suppress laughter. I nudged him under the table. 

"_You _beat up Tim!?" Ali almost shouted in disbelief.

Fang just shrugged.

"And now she's being a pain in the butt, so we need a way to get her back," I explained, devouring my second tray while the boys finished their fourth.

"Wait, I thought that you already had a plan," Iggy said, his eyes narrowing at me.

"I do, but I'm open to suggestions," I said with a sly smile.

"Well," Alison began as she fiddled with the hem of her skirt. "The two of us used to be best friends when we were little."

I blinked and looked up at her.

"What!?" Everyone seemed to intone together.

"Yeah, so I know quite a lot about her," she admitted, avoiding our gazes. "Including something that she used to be afraid of. But I made a promise to her that I'd never tell anyone."

"Ali, this promise was made when you were friends, so it can't possibly count anymore, right?" I asked her, trying to get her to look at me.

"Well, uh...maybe I shouldn't."

She seemed to be really worried about this so I decided to tell her the truth about the matter. Wow, I was really moving out of my lying ways lately...

"She's been teasing Jeff. We stood up for him and then she sent Tim to attack Nick," I admitted, making Iggy dump his head on the table in embarrassment.

I watched her eyes widen in surprise and she looked over at a blushing Iggy. She was always loyal to her friends so I guess that was why she didn't want to tell us Lissa's secret. But, I could see the protectiveness of her _new _friends in her eyes as she said the last few words.

"I'll tell you."

+-+-+

"Dun, dun, dun dun, dun, dun, dun dun," Iggy sung 'The Mission Impossible theme' as we sneaked down the dark hall's of our school. He turned his head left and right quickly, as if looking for danger (not that he could see anything anyway), and did a few commando rolls until he crashed, head-first, into a set of lockers.

"Ow," he moaned as he sat up and shook his head.

Alison giggled and I rolled my eyes. "Jeff, for God's sake be quiet!"

Through the darkness I saw him smirk and I looked over at Fang for help, but he had already moved over to the other hall without me noticing. Sometimes he was too quiet for his own good.

"Come on," I whispered as I followed Fang's lead down the hall.

Alison dragged Iggy by his sleeve after us and I gave Fang a look that said 'let's start here?'

He nodded and unzipped his backpack, taking out the hundreds of posters that the four of us had photocopied at Alison's house.

We stuck them all over the walls and the lockers and chucked the rest all over the floor. When we were satisfied, the four of us managed to sneak out of the building without getting noticed – we hoped.

+-+-+

"Hurry up!" I called to Alison who was running at a 'human' pace behind us.

"Me? You were the one that overslept again, Max!" She shouted at me and I peeked over my shoulder to see her trying really hard to catch up to the three of us who were several meters ahead of her. We were genetically enhanced; couldn't be helped.

Ig, Fang and I stopped at the gate and waited for Alison before briskly walking into the building. Upon entry, we saw many people looking around at our posters and laughing while others picking them up off the floor to inspect them more closely. And, in the middle of it, was Lissa, who was blushing madly while attempting to hide the posters in her locker and failing miserably.

"I'm assuming that all went to plan," Iggy said and smiled nervously as he opened his locker and shoved his bag inside.

"Yup," I said and popped the 'p' sound as I put my bag away too.

However, it was too good to last because pretty soon an angry looking Lissa began to walk down the hall towards us.

"Crap," Iggy and Fang muttered under their breath at the same time.

"You did this didn't you!?" She shouted at all four of us, pure outrage clear on her bright red face.

"Why would we do this? It's not like you've done _anything_ to us before!" I retorted, glaring harshly at her and clenching my fists.

"Well, it won't do you any good!" She turned her gaze towards Iggy. "This is only the beginning and I'm going to get you and all of your little friends!"

She took a step towards Iggy as if she was going to pounce on him at any second. But before I had time to do anything, Iggy had stepped in front of me and glared down at her.

"Now where have I heard that quote before?" he said as he pretended to think, his sightless eyes somehow fixing onto her. "Oh, that's right! It was in the Wizard of Oz. 'I'll get you my pretties and your little dog too.'" He imitated in an old hags voice. "You portray the witch almost perfectly. But may I suggest making your face a different shade of ugly, oh wait, I can't see. Hmm, but, from what I've heard, I'm sure that your face is probably just as ugly as your personality."

I put a hand to my mouth to stop myself from bursting into laughter but Alison failed and let out a small giggle.

Lissa, who was completely bewildered by the look that Iggy was giving her and the comment he had just made, screamed in frustration and stormed off, obviously not really sure of what to say back to him.

After she left I looked over at Alison, who had now burst into hysterical laughter, and Fang who was _smiling _in an un-Fang-like way. _He had a nice smile...wait, what!?_

"Couldn't have done that better myself," Fang said as he patted him on the back which only made Iggy's smile grow.

"Thanks, now please describe to me one more time what's on the posters," Iggy begged, jumping up and down like a small child wanting to know what they got for Christmas.

I sighed as I picked up one of the posters lying at my feet.

"Lissa is sitting in a corner crying her eyes out while a dog is sniffing her foot curiously. The dog is a Chihuahua and it is shaking slightly at her loud wailing."

"Lissa was always afraid of dogs," Alison chimed in through her laughter.

**Sorry for any mistakes but I've had a bit of trouble putting this up! -mutters- Stupid fanfiction...**

**Iggy: Lissa's a witch**

**Me: A bitchy witch**

**Iggy: Can you get in trouble for that on here?**

**Me: -shrugs- Most people hate her anyway**

**Iggy: Fine**

**Me: R&R!? Another flock member is coming up!!! :D:D:D YAY! I've had this idea for a while now...and I'm hoping to add some FAX next chapter (now that Iggy has solved his problem)**

**Iggy: HEY! Quit using me as an excuse to not put Fax in**

**Me: hehe**

**Iggy: 'hehe?'**

**Me: Uh...what?**

**Iggy: You're really OOC**

**Me: Well I'm not a character so I can't be out of character**

**Iggy: But you're acting that way!**

**Me: So?**

**Iggy: So!? You're-**

**Me: A LLAMA LOST IT'S FOOT!!!**

**Iggy: 0_o**

**Me: -laughs- Please review**

**Bell and Ig**


	15. Chapter 15: More FAX

**Me: Hey everyone, I thought that I should update this before I go and do homework. Kuh-bleh!**

**Iggy: -is hiding behind chair-**

**Me: Iggy, come out now!**

**Iggy: N-no...**

**Me: -sighs- Skits's Iggy (there's more than one Iggy :S you get used to it after a while) has a stalker and now my Iggy is afraid -facepalm- Okay, I'm not going into details about that now as it would waste your valuble reading time, but I do need to put something important here in the AN...**

**Firstly, in this chapter I have kind of combined some quotes from the third and fourth books. So if you notice this (which I'm sure you will) keep note that it's all on purpose :) Throughout this fic I plan on adding reference to the real books. That's why Ari wasn't a bully at Max's school school - he would still be at _the school_ and I still need an antagonist in here ;) -shrugs- You'll see what I'm planning as you read along.**

**Another thing that needs to get done is that I need an OC for chapter 16 or 17. Now, should I run a competition for my readers to be in the story, or should I just make one up? You have the power here, so I'll let you choose.**

**Now, Fax in this chapter, I hope you like it ;)**

After that incident with Lissa, things became pretty quiet for us; Lissa left us alone and school was as boring as usual. The only new thing that had come into play was our new little 'study group,' which could also be called 'mission to find the Flock...'but we knew that that would be too conspicuous.

Every night after school, Fang, Ig and I would meet up at one of our houses to do homework and research on the Flock. But we always found zilch, nada, zip. It seemed that when we thought we were onto something, we'd hit a dead end and have to try another option. Then there'd be a lot of yelling, screaming, arguing, and banging things in frustration before we'd all forgive and forget and fall asleep in our clothes around the room.

Tonight, however, I was on my own because Mrs. Walker had guests over and Mrs. Janssen had told Fang that he had to help cook dinner tonight for no apparent reason. So, I was back to flying solo again (ignore the terrible pun).

Tonight's task: to try and find out anything I could about Nudge. The grade I would give myself for the effort: A++. The grade I would give myself for the result: Can I go lower than 'Z?'

Everywhere I looked I found nothing and before I knew it, I had taken up a familiar sleeping position on my keyboard.

+-+-+

_Bang, bang, bang._

I groaned as I was rudely awakened by a loud banging somewhere outside my room.

_Bang, bang, bang._

I sat up and looked around bewildered, rubbing my eyes drowsily as I did so.

_Bang, bang, bang._

I stood up and staggered across the room, still half asleep, and swung the door open. Upon finding no one, I angrily shut the door and flopped on my bed, glancing at the clock. 3 a.m.

_Bang._

_Bang._

_Bang!_

I bolted upright and my head whipped around till I was looking at the window. I jumped up, now feeling wide awake, and ran over.

Outside, hovering just outside my window, was a figure with dark wings who I could instantly make out, even in the dim lighting. I opened it up and clicked the latches into place.

"Fang? What are you doing here?" I asked, my hands folded neatly across my chest.

"Let's take a little spin?" He asked, smiling a perfect smile.

"Why?" I said, kind of confused as to what he was doing outside my window at three in the morning.

"Because we can."

I felt my lips curl into a smile at his answer and placed a foot on the windowsill, preparing to jump. Fang backtracked a little bit to give me some room and I jumped out, freefalling for a few seconds before letting the wind catch my wings and flying up into the sky with Fang.

That was the other thing that I had noticed about this week; Fang and I were getting closer. I always thought that I had a strong connection with him at the school, but there was nothing much we could do while we were fighting Erasers or sitting in cages. But, out here in the real world, we could really get to know each other and I loved it...uh, forget I said that.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked, my wing tips brushing against his on every downstroke. I really didn't care where we went as long as we got to keep flying. It had felt like forever since I had last stretched me wings and that was only yesterday.

"Does it matter?" Fang replied with a smile.

"Not really."

+-+-+

I think that we flew for about two hours, dive bombing and spiralling through the sky like jet planes performing stunts. The crisp night wind blew around us and ruffled our feathers and knotty hair, making us feel wide awake and full of energy even though I had felt dead two hours before.

We encircled each other, smiling happily at the feeling. I had always found it difficult to describe flying. Words like: amazing, spectacular, breathtaking, astounding, incredible and mind-blowing never even came close. Maybe if you put all of those words together to form one big word it would maybe work. Anyway, when it came to flying with Fang, I knew that there would never be any possible way of describing it. When I was with him, everything around us just melted away like colored paints running down a canvas. I had never felt this close to anyone in my life, and we had hardly said anything to each other all night.

Eventually, the two of us silently agreed to land in a park that was so far away from out houses than none of us knew it existed.

The two of us ended up dropping to the ground beside each other in exhaustion. Panting heavily, we both outstretched our wings so that they could cool off and weren't being crushed behind us. We stayed in silence for a while before Fang propped himself up on one elbow and looked over at me, a huge smile plastered across his face. I pretended that I didn't notice him staring at me for a while, hoping that he'd stop looking at me so strangely. But he didn't.

"What?" I asked, sitting up in the same position as him.

"Nothing," he replied, looking up at the sky that had started to brighten.

"You do realise we need to be at school in less than four hours?"

He nodded, "So? Does it even matter?"

"I guess not."

"How are we going to find Nudge?" He suddenly asked, changing the topic away from school in an instant.

I really didn't expect this so I was caught off guard. "I don't know, Fang. Right now I'm hoping that she just magically appears, kind of like how you and Ig did."

"Somehow I don't think that waiting for an answer to fall out of the sky is going to help," he said and I noticed that he seemed to have moved slightly closer to me, but I ignored it.

"Well, what's left to do, Fang? We have tried everything from Google to Myspace and have come up with nothing," I said in frustration. It only just dawned on me how hard we'd been working for minimal results and it was starting to become very frustrating.

"How about we just forget about all of that for a while then," he said quietly, leaning further and further towards me. I opened my mouth to reply but was abruptly cut off by Fang's lips on mine.

For a second, I was too stunned to move; every muscle in my body tensed up. It felt like a million butterflies were trapped in my stomach and were trying to get out my mouth which was blocked off by my best friend's lips. Wait, was he more than that? Did I _want _him to be more than that? I was so confused, questions seemed to race through my mind like a freight train until I realised that I was getting dizzy. I couldn't breathe and I broke away, staring into his eyes in shock, before leaping to my feet and looking out over the horizon.

"I – I'm not sure about this," I muttered, before taking to the air, leaving a very confused Fang behind me. I couldn't even imagine how he must be feeling now, and I knew that this would all come back and bite me in the butt tomorrow.

What had I done?

**Me: Yeah, so tell me what you think about the OC thing and I'll update ASAP. Nudge should be coming up soon...hopefully...**

**Iggy: -is rocking back and forth in a corner- She's coming to get me...I'm gonna die...**

**Me: She isn't after you, Nimrod!**

**Iggy: Who says she can't!??!!**

**Me: -rolls eyes- R&R!? Please...ignore Iggy, I think he may be losing it...**

**-Bell and Ig**


	16. Chapter 16: Hybrids

**Me: Any need for an AN?**

**Iggy: Nope**

**Me: Fair enough. Just one little thing I need to add on...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fences by Paramore.**

**There.**

**Iggy: I thought you said we weren't gonna do an AN.**

**Me: -whacks- Just shut up so I can get to the point already**

"Did you guys watch the news last night?" Iggy seemed to spew out the words so fast that I could hardly catch them. He, Fang, Ella and I had just met up outside my house as usual.

"N-no," I said, avoiding Fang's gaze as we all began to walk. We hadn't said anything to each other all morning, not that we had the chance through Ella's chatting, and things had suddenly become incredibly awkward.

"I think that Nudge may have been on it last night!" Iggy said, almost unable to hold in his excitement any longer.

My head shot up and I noticed that everyone had stopped walking to look at our friend who was practically bouncing up and down on the spot.

"How do you know?" Fang asked uncertainly, probably in the same state as me; unable to believe it.

"Mrs. Walker was talking with her friends and everything was starting to get boring, so I excused myself and turned on the TV," he began and we kept walking, listening to every word of his story. "I listened for a while and it said something about being the nine o'clock news. I was about to change it when the announcer said something that caught my attention. He said 'Now introducing Monique Carlson and with her new hit 'Fences.'"

Sure, we knew that Nudge's real name was Monique but...

I sighed and my shoulders slumped in defeat. "Jeff," I started as a man with a dog walked passed us. "That could have been _anyone _you saw, uh, _heard_. There are many people with that name. Trust me, the Myspace pages don't lie."

"Elementary my dear, Max," he said putting on a Sherlock Holmes accent making me want to groan. "You haven't heard the lyrics to her song yet."

"Well, go on then, know-it-all," I told him, rolling my eyes.

He then began to recite the lyrics as if he had heard them a million times. I guess that it was one of the advantages of being genetically enhanced.

"I'm sitting in a room, made up of only big white walls and in the halls there are people looking through, the window in the door and they know exactly what we're here for don't look up just let them think there's no place else you'd rather be..."

I felt my eyes widen, and for the first time that day I was able to look up and make eye contact with Fang. My look said 'does that sound familiar to you?' He nodded.

The school. It sounded like the school.

"...you're always on display for everyone to watch and learn from don't you know by now, you can't turn back because this road is all you've ever had," he stopped and then frowned. "Sorry, I don't remember the rest, but it also mentioned that her nickname was Nudge-"

"Okay, Ig, it sounds like it _could _be her," I interrupted, turning a corner and walking through the front gate.

He smiled, "it sounded like her too."

"How could you know what she sounded like? It was six years ago and she hardly said anything back then anyway," Fang interrupted, knowing that our conversation had to end soon because we were almost in the building.

Iggy didn't have time to reply because we had already made it into the school. After an amazing length of silence from Ella's part she perked herself right back up and started speaking quickly again on another topic, probably attempting to cover our tracks now that anyone could be listening.

+-+-+

The rest of the day went by in a blur. All I could I think about was Nudge; she was invading my brain.

And since Ali was with us most of the day, there was no time to ask Iggy the millions of questions buzzing around in my head. Where does she live? Does she go to school? Did her 'parents' treat her the way she wanted to be treated? Was she happy?

We all sat down at the table while Ali continued telling us a story that I wasn't listening to. I don't think that any of us were.

"Max?"

I looked up from my tray of food to see her scowling harshly at me.

"What?"

"You haven't listened to a word I've said, have you?"

"I did. And I don't want to go shopping with you again," I replied, hoping that that was what she was going on about.

She rolled her eyes impatiently. I guess that means I missed the target by a mile...

"I said that I was watching the news last night and there was this awesome new singer called Monique Carlson."

This got my attention. I almost laughed as Fang and Iggy seemed to snap out of a trance, Iggy knocking over Fang's coke in the process.

"Watch it," Fang said as he shook his head in annoyance and glanced up at me, before dropping his eyes again.

"Sorry Fnick," Iggy said with fake sincerity. "I'll watch it next time...if only I could!"

"Guys," I said to them as if they were three year olds (well they sure were acting like it). "Continue, Ali."

"Well, there isn't much to say. I was just wondering what you guys thought of her."

"I didn't watch the news last night," I told her while Fang and Iggy cleaned up the mess. "But Jeff listened to her and said that she was good. I'll look her up tonight."

"I just think it's amazing how she was unknown one day and then famous the next. I mean, what are the chances of that?" She asked in wonder.

"A million to one?" I asked, realising that this was all too perfect. What are the chances of Nudge just magically appearing on TV with both Iggy and Ali knowing about it? It was just too unreal and it didn't feel right. _Something was amiss._

"Yeah, but it doesn't matter because she has an amazing voice-"

She was rudely interrupted by the loud clanging bell and Ali moaned, obviously realising we had science.

"Guys, what are you doing?" I asked, finally noticing that Fang and Iggy had their arms entwined on the table.

"We're...arm...wrestling..." Iggy grounded out, obviously struggling against Fang.

I rolled my eyes and walked over to the boys' side of the table, then forcefully pushed down on their hands so that Fang won.

"That's unfair!" Iggy whined while Fang snickered.

"No it wasn't. You would have lost anyway," Fang said, freeing his hand from my grasp. "Pay up."

"No way..."

As the two of them broke out into an argument, Ali and I walked off down the hallway, noting that we'd probably never understand boys.

+-+-+

"Sorry I'm late, Mr. Batchelder," Iggy muttered as he stood awkwardly in the doorway. I tried not to smirk, knowing that he'd been busy fighting with Fang and I was almost certain that they were both late.

"Never mind, Jeff. Just take a seat so I can begin the class."

Iggy then accurately swerved around each desk and plonked himself down in the one next to mine.

"Okay class, today we're covering a very interesting topic," he told us as he slowly paced the room, his eyes flickering between each member of our class until they stopped on me.

"Hybrids."

My breath caught in my throat and my wings pressed so hard against my back that they ached.

"Do you mean electronic hybrids? Like those weird cars?" Abbie asked and Mr. Batchelder shook his head, his eyes still caught on mine.

"Do you know what I'm talking about, Max?" He asked, his pacing stopping and his unblinking eyes locked on mine.

"No, Mr. Batchelder," I said with a frown. "Unless you mean hybrids that are mixed between two animals."

"That is exactly what I'm talking about," he said, his expression softening and his eyes finally breaking contact with mine. Can any of you name an example?"

"Ligar."

"Mule."

"Cama."

As the class began to randomly call out different types of hybrids, Iggy wordlessly passed me a note.

_Are we in trouble?_

I rested the note paper on my science text book and pressed down hard.

_Yes. We need to get out of here._

I passed it back and he ran his fingers along it before nodding. He slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a remote-control-like device and held it tightly in his hand.

"Mr. Batchelder?"

"Yes Alison?"

"Is it possible to make a human hybrid?"

Time seemed to pause for a moment as Mr. Batchelder glanced between Ig and I. I snapped my head around to see Ali, who was looking at me with an almost wicked smile on her face.

_She knew._

Mr. Batchelder opened his mouth to answer her when a large earthquake like sound erupted throughout the school and everything around us seemed to shake. The sprinklers turned on and the class raced out of the classroom screaming their heads off. Ig and I followed close behind and then bolted down the hall towards Fang's room. There were no other thoughts in my head other than _'we have to get the heck out of here.'_

As I rounded a corner his dark head came into view and I screamed his name, not really caring if anyone else heard me. Our eyes locked and he turned and bolted out the door into the open.

"Come on!" I called to Iggy over my shoulder and we followed Fang out the door, making a hard left and finding a secluded place to take off where no one will notice us.

"You took your time," Fang muttered before jumping into the air and spreading his dark wings to get aloft. I went after him, followed by Iggy.

I then took to the lead and steered the boys as far away from the school as I possibly could, completely ignoring the fact that we flew straight past our houses in the process.

"So, what's the plan?" Fang asked a few minutes later and I knew that we had to do something. Flying straight towards nothing for ages wasn't going to do us any good.

"Are Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Janssen at work?"

"Yeah," they answered at different times.

"Then we'll go home quickly and get some essentials. Then we're going to head out."

"Where?" Fang asked curiously, raising an eyebrow.

"We're going to-" But I didn't have time to answer his question because my skull exploded and everything went black.

**Me: Okay, guys. This is where things start to get exciting. Please review, more Fax will come. I'll probably end up writing more in the next chapter.**

**-Bell and Ig**


	17. Chapter 17: Brain attack

**Me: Guys what everyone!?!? Ig and I actually have something to talk about for once!**

**Iggy: -gasps- That is shocking, Bell.**

**Me: -giggles- It's my Birthday tomorrow!!!! So, in honour of the not so special occasion, I'm getting off my butt and updating this for everyone :D:D:D:D:D:D:D**

**Iggy: -sighs- And I'm getting off my butt to...nevermind**

**Me: What?**

**Iggy: Nothing**

**Me: IS IT SOMETHING FOR MY BIRTHDAY!?!??!**

**Iggy: Nope.**

**Me: Oh, I bet that it is!**

**Iggy: And I bet that it's not. It honestly isn't. I just need to listen to the end of my audiobook...**

**Me: -sniffles-**

**Iggy: -rolls eyes- You'll find out tomorrow...**

**Me: YAY!**

**Iggy: Can we just start the chapter?**

**Me: Yeah, yeah. Thanks for all the reviews, guys! You've really made this story awesome!**

Images flashed through my throbbing head like a freight train going one hundred and eighty miles an hour. The intensity of the pain grew and I screamed while trying to curl up into a ball and make the pain stop. Lights flashed before my eyes for a few moments and the pictures began to slow down. A beautiful white house came into view...scratch that, an amazing white mansion sitting on the prettiest hill I had ever seen came into view. There were golden colored flowers scattered across the grass and the house looked like it had been designed by angels.

As the image moved backwards, a street post appeared and it read 'Kingsford court.' I was then hurled really quickly forward until I could clearly see the letterbox and it's number; 58. Suddenly, the image changed with a new flash of white light a new terrible pain. The picture then came into view and I knew that I was no longer looking at the house; I was now inside it. There was a huge, entrance hall with golden brown floor boards that shone as the afternoon light filtered in, a glittery chandelier hanging above me that sparkled different colors of the rainbow and a marvellous, marble staircase slowly curving up into the second floor. I had never seen a house this amazing in my life.

I then watched as a young, mocha skinned girl walked down the stairs singing along with her iPod. She bounced around happily, dancing in the entrance hall, obviously not noticing my presence. She didn't seem to be any older than eleven and I couldn't believe that she lived in this house. I took in her dark, tangled hair that didn't seem to be tamed, her tall, slim figure that was covered by her trendy clothes along with her beautiful tawny brown wings which she extended from her back as she danced around the hall- WHAT? Hang on, back it up. Wings? It then occurred to me that the girl I was watching in this hug mansion was Nudge. It took every ounce of strength for me to not start crying at that moment. She was so grown up and beautiful compared to the last time I has seen her and I couldn't believe that this was the scrawny little girl that had lived in the cage next to mine.

She lived at 58 Kingsford court...somewhere. I hung onto that information like a lifeline. I was going to find her.

"Max?"

"Max, are you alright?"

"Nudge!" I called out to her as she started to fade away with the house, and everything went dark.

I felt a strong, dull pain as my eyes slowly edged open to see two boys leaning over me with the sun behind their heads so I could only make out their silhouettes.

"Max, say something!" The boy dressed in a dark attire said.

"What happened?" I mumbled, trying to sit up, but the dark boy pushed me down again.

"You were flying and then you fell out of the sky!" The strawberry blonde answered, his eyes looking at a place above my eyebrows.

"Oh...so I was flying and...wait, what?" I finally snapped back into reality and sat up quickly, smashing heads with the dark haired boy, which I now remembered was Fang, while the strawberry blonde, Iggy, laughed.

"What happened Max?" Fang asked, rubbing his head. "One minute you were with us, and the next, you were falling out of the sky like a rock."

"Why would a rock fall out of the sky?" I asked randomly, not fully aware of the situation.

Iggy came over and started feeling my head.

"What are you doing?" I asked, trying to back away but he wouldn't let me.

"Trying to make sure you don't have a concussion. Hold still!" He said, but I squirmed out of his grasp.

"I'm fine!" I said, quickly getting to my feet, only to be in Fang's arms a few seconds later.

"We need to find Nudge," I muttered, trying to get my balance by leaning on Fang's shoulder.

"And how do we do that? We have no other details other than she lives in New York. And that's not going to help us," Ig said, crossing his arms.

"58 Kingsford Court, New York," I stated, the pieces finally fitting together now that Iggy had told me where exactly she was.

"How do you know that?" Fang asked, totally bewildered.

"I'll explain later," I said, finally getting to my feet. "Now let's go and pack our things."

+-+-+

I practically threw open the door to my house and bounded up the stairs two at a time to get to my room. I then thrust open my closet and took out a spare change in clothes, along with a backpack, and stuffed the clothes in bag. Next I put in a small box of matches to start a fire, a torch, my mobile phone- wait, aren't there like, trackers in these things?

I stopped my wild rampage and began flicking through my phone.

"Wait, what am I doing?" I explained aloud. I was in such a panic that I couldn't think straight.

_Focus, Max. Pack only the essentials. _I thought reassuringly to myself.

I put the phone in my pocket, knowing I could discard it later.

I ran down the stairs again, and bolted towards the kitchen, only stopping when I saw a steely eyed glare from Ella who was sitting at the table.

"Max, what's going on?"

"I'm going to find Nudge," I replied, not bothering to lie, and walked with purpose towards the fridge. I took out as much food as I could, then I moved onto the cupboard.

"What?" Ella practically screeched at me. "Are you _insane? _You hardly have any knowledge about any of this and you don't even know if it is her in the first place!"

I stopped shoving supplies into my bag and turned to face my half-sister. "Ella, my science teacher and my_ X-best friend_ know about me. Who knows who else may know my secret? I have to get away and find the rest of the Flock. Tell mom that she shouldn't worry about me and I'll contact her ASAP."

Ella seemed to be a bit stunned for a moment, but eventually nodded. "So, there's nothing I can do to make you stay?" She asked, tears already rolling down her cheeks.

I engulfed her in a tight hug. "Not unless you know how to erase memories," I joked, only making her arms cling onto my tighter.

A few seconds later there was a loud knock at the door and the two of us broke apart.

"That should be Fang," I whispered as I picked up my backpack but none of us moved towards the door. The loud knocking came again.

"Open up!" Someone shouted and I knew that it wasn't Fang.

"Go to your bedroom and get out the window," Ella said quickly shoving me roughly towards the stairs. "I'll get it."

"No! Don't get it, it might be a trap-" but before I had time to finish my sentence, the door was broken down and loud footsteps entered the house.

"Go! I'll be fine!" Ella shouted and I hesitated for only a moment before running up the stairs and jumping straight out my window, not really caring who saw.

_I'm sorry, Ella. I'll be back, I promise. _I mentally said before heading towards Fang's house.

+-+-+

My head was still throbbing while I hovered over Fang's house, waiting for him to appear. It seemed like an eternity that I stayed there with that dull pain numbing my other senses and I just wanted to get out of here. I looked at my watch and realising that it had only been two minutes I moaned.

"Come on, come on," I said watching as the seconds ticked by at a slower pace than my sister usually walked. However, my patience never paid off because soon enough there was a commotion coming from my house and a group of men dressed in black darted out the door and headed for Fang's front door.

"Fang!" I called, before dive bombing towards his window.

The men in the black (sorry for the bad pun), broke down the door and I stopped in front of the window, sighing in relief when he was in there packing his things and not being pulled out of his room by the men that most likely worked for the school. I rapped loudly on the glass and when I had his attention, pointed at my watch, gesturing that we were out of time.

He nodded and swung his pack over his shoulder. I then turned and began to fly up higher to give him some room. Not too far away I saw Iggy flying towards me, probably following the sounds of the ruckus below me. A few minutes after that, Fang appeared behind me.

"You ready?" I asked them and they both nodded in unison. "Okay, we're going to New York!"

**Me: And, there you have it! Keep in mind that this chapter took me a while. There was sooooo much that I had to change to fit the plot and yada, yada, yada. So, yeah, please bear with me**

**Iggy: Just tell her that it was good and say happy birthday in a review. Then she'll squee tomorrow morning and send replies or something weird like that**

**Me: :D:D:D:D:D:D:D Please review, it took me FOREVER to write this ;)**

**Iggy: And if you don't review we'll send Fang's evil toy monkey to attack you!!!**

**Me: -cracks up- Looong story. Only some of the skype crew would understand it...OH! Skype! Anyone have a skype? If you do, tell me!!! We have a little group going and you're welcome to talk to us! (if you read St Fang of Boredom's, Vera_Amber's, Karecitay's, MG Christiani's, Rainbowstrike's Fangalicious08, Tgypwya's fics etc, you'd probably know what I'm rambling about ;))**

**Iggy: You guys have a long list...**

**Me: Hehe, yeah...anyway, I'll update asap. There may be a competition soon -shrugs- See how we go. BYE!**

**Iggy: Yeah...bye...**

**-Bell and Ig :D**


	18. Chapter 18: You made that bomb?

**Me: Hi guys...heh...**

**Iggy: By that she means 'I'm sorry that I haven't updated in so long please forgive me'**

**Me: -sigh- Yeah, exactly...sorry guys. I had writers block for a while, but I thought that I'd update this already**

**Iggy: And because _Matt _wanted her to-**

**Me: -whacks- Shut. Up. Yeah, Matt kinda got me into writing this again...**

**Iggy: And Matt's jeal-**

**Me: Continue and I will make sure that you will _never _have children.**

**Iggy: O_o**

**Me: There, problem solved.**

**_Dedicated to: Matt, who got me off my butt so I could actually write this fic. You'd better be happy Matthias :P_**

**Oh, and Matt. -eyeroll- You're so picky about detail! I'm sorry that I can't get everything perfect :P:P:P:P:P**

**Iggy: Yes, I'm sure that-**

**Me: Children. -holds up chainsaw-**

**Iggy: -shuts up-**

**Me: Enjoy the chapter guys :)**

"Max, how much further?" Iggy whined for the hundredth time that afternoon. Fang and I looked helplessly at each other and then made a silent decision.

"We're here, Iggy," I replied, angling my wings until we were heading down.

"New York? Already?"

"If you believe that New York is a cave that we're going to stay in overnight, then yes, Iggy. We're at New York," I replied irritably, just wishing this day could be over with.

"Wow, I didn't know New York was a cave," he replied in wonder and I was too tired to tell if he was kidding or not.

Fang and I moaned in unison and then the three of us landed not so gracefully on the cliff's edge, collapsing in a heap on the hard ground. Our heavy breathing echoed throughout the cave for a few moments before we were able to pull ourselves together and sit up.

"So, Max, you going to explain how you know where Nudge is?" Fang asked as we started to unpack some of our food, hunger finally consuming our thoughts.

"Well," I said, remembering the brain explosion that I'd had earlier that day. "My head erupted in pain and then images started racing through my head. After that, I saw Nudge inside her house at 58 Kingsford Court, New York."

"Are you sure it was her?" Iggy asked, swallowing the last of a granola bar before stuffing the wrapper in his bag.

"I'm positive. How many mocha-skinned teenagers do we know with _wings?_"

They didn't say anything.

"Exactly my point," I went on. It _has _to be her," I said indefinitely, reassuring myself more than anything.

"And you just saw her?" Fang asked, obviously realising that I probably shouldn't be having brain-splattering headaches that made me fall out of the sky at random intervals.

"Well yeah…I just saw it in my head."

Fang stared at me for a moment, digesting the newest Earth-shattering situation we had to face. Iggy had chosen to focus on a spot just above my eyebrows – only slightly off.

"I don't know guys," I said finally. "It's weird, but we don't know anything about this, so can we just drop it?"

The two of them nodded.

There was more silence for a while as we stuffed our faces with food, trying to get the calories that we desperately needed.

"So…what did you guys think of that explosion today?" Iggy said suddenly, his face transforming into a somewhat cheeky grin.

"Huh?" I asked, swallowing a brownie.

"The bomb I set off! The one that made the school rumble!"

"That was you?" I shouted, actually standing up. "How did you…you…how could…huh?"

Iggy stared blankly at me for a moment before doubling over, laughing his head off.

_Real intelligent, Max, _I thought to myself as I rolled my eyes. I probably could have said something better like 'Oh, it was you that made the bomb? Okay, that sounds perfectly normal'…you know what? I don't think that there is an intelligent response when a guy almost younger than you practically made a whole freaking school building crumble to the ground.

"So you can make bombs?" I asked slowly, ceasing his laughter.

"Yeah, Max. I can," he replied slowly and smugly as if I was a three year old that didn't understand.

"Now, tell me," I went on. "Do you have any bombs on your person right now?"

"Yeah, of course," he said quickly, before realising the whole purpose of the question. He instantly shut his mouth.

"Hand them over-"

"But Max!" he protested.

"Hand. Them. Over." I said, holding out my hand.

"But why?" He replied defensively, crossing his arms.

"What if one goes off while you're flying? Do you want to be splattered all over America?" I replied, suddenly realising that this could have happened on the journey up here.

"They're safety bombs! They won't go off unless I want them to!"

"But how do you know that? One could be already activated for all we know!" I shot him a glare and cussed when I realised that it was pointless.

"Max," Fang said evenly and I snapped my head around to look at him. "It's okay. I think Iggy knows what he's doing."

Iggy cheered and punched the air in triumph while I sent Fang daggers.

"And," Fang continued. "If he gets blown to bits, that's his problem, not ours."

Iggy stopped dead. "Wait…wha?"

I held back a snicker. "Fine then. Whatever."

I sat on the edge of the cliff face, keeping watch while the night sky loomed above me like a large, dark blanket. Although you should always keep your mind focussed on the task at hand while keeping watch, I couldn't keep my mind off Nudge. She was all that I could think about lately and I couldn't wait until we found her. _If_ we found her. _No, Bad Max. We will find her. _

_But what if we don't? Will we ever be whole again?_

_Don't think that, stay positive._

Okay, I was now so tired that I was arguing with myself. God I needed sleep…

"Hey."

I practically fell of the side of the freaking cliff. "Fang! Will you quit that?"

He sat down next to me. "Quit what, breathing?"

"You know perfectly well what I meant!" I whispered angrily, putting a hand over my now fast-paced heart. "Anyway, why aren't you sleeping?"

"I figured that you could use a break. We flew for ages today, more than usual. You must be tired," he whispered back as he stared out over the sky, his senses probably on full alert.

"Not really," I lied, looking in the direction he was looking, feeling his warmth against my body.

We sat there in a comfortable silence for a while, just the two of us together. It felt right. I had never been so close to anyone as I was to Fang, and I don't think that that would ever change.

"Can I ask you something?" I asked quietly, looking down at my lap.

"You just did."

I rolled my eyes. "Fang, I'm being serious."

"So am I."

I stared at him in disbelief and he gave me a rare grin. "What is it?"

"Were you happy?"

"Huh?"

I sighed. "Your life with Mrs. Janssen. Were you happy?"

Fang's grin slipped off his face and his brow furrowed in thought. "Well…I guess you could say that. I had a home with enough money to stay alive and go to school, I had friends, someone to look after me…"

I nodded, my gaze turning back to the sky again.

"But…" he trailed off, obviously not wanting to finish.

"But what?" I asked and he shook his head.

"Tell me."

"But, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop thinking about you."

Beside myself, I blushed. I hoped that it was too dark for Fang to see it. I could never handle all this 'mushy stuff' well, but I managed to think of something to say.

"I was always thinking about you too. Everyday the Flock was all that I could think about."

Fang's look changed to disappointment when he realised that I wasn't understanding what he meant, and I rolled my eyes.

"I'm going to get some sleep. I'll talk to you in the morning," and on that note, I retreated into the cave.

**Me: Max ish clueless!**

**Iggy: This was a boring filler!**

**Me: -shrug- Yeah, but Nudge should at least make an appearance in the next chapter...hopefully...**

**And, OC's. I've already had a few suggestions...-sigh- I'm still not sure...I'm thinking about scrapping the idea all together...but we'll see. Meh...okay, bed.**

**Iggy: So you can get up early and talk to Matt?**

**Me: Exactly.**

**Iggy: Because you-**

**Me: Do I have to say it?**

**Iggy: But-**

**Me: Shut up!**

**R&R? Please excuse Iggy...-eyeroll-**

**-Bell and Ig**


	19. Chapter 19: Nightmare or memory?

**Me: I am soooooo sorry! There is no way to announce how sorry I am for not updating this in so long...-sigh- I wouldn't be surprised if all of my readers were gone :(**

**Iggy: I'm surprised they stayed with you at all...until you abandoned them!**

**Me: -glares- But, once again, I am so sorry that I can't put it into words. And if you're still reading this fic, I thank you!**

**Iggy: And if you're not reading this fic anymore...thank you!**

**Me: You're nice today**

**Iggy: -shrug- I'm tired, you're tired, I want to sleep, you're talking to your boyfriend.**

**Me: ...point. I need to sleep.**

**Iggy: Then...sleep**

**Me: But I need to update this!**

**Iggy: -facepalm- **

**Me: I'm sorry! Enjoy the chapter :)**

_I was in a white room. It was incredibly small and there were no windows or doors, or anything for that matter. And, to make it worse, I was alone._

"_Fang?" I called out, standing up and walking forward two steps which was the entire length of the tiny room. "Iggy?"_

_I placed my hands on the cold, white surface of the wall and traced my fingertips over the top of it, looking for an exit._

"_You ready, Max?" _

_I spun around and saw that the room had become bigger now, wider. A man stood before me, his greying hair pushed back and an eerie smile on his face. It was Mr. Batchelder, wearing a worn, white coat and holding a syringe in his hand menacingly, as if it were a weapon. And, in my case, it probably was._

"_Leave. Me. Alone." I grounded out, pressing my back firmly against the wall, my torn hospital gown providing no protection from the sudden coldness of the room. My hands speedily felt the wall, looking for something to defend myself. But there was nothing besides us._

"_It's time for the next experiment, sweetie," he said evilly as he slowly walked towards me, still holding that damn syringe. "It will be okay. Fang and Iggy went along with the treatment, now it's your turn. Hold still, now."_

"_NO!" I screamed as the horrible man continued to approach. Suddenly, just as he was about to stab me with the weapon, the wall behind me vanished instantly and I began falling, falling into the darkness below me. When I sat up, I was in another white room with the younger versions of Fang and Iggy. The two boys were lying helplessly in a pool of their own blood, eyes open and their small bodies with fear. I screamed as I ran to them, only discovering that whenever I took a step, they got even further away. Tears rolled down my cheeks and painful shrieks left my throat as I struggled to reach them. Then a sharp pain appeared in my right arm as Mr. Batchelder finally stabbed me in the arm with the needle. I felt a pang of fear as the green liquid entered my bloodstream and I screamed bloody murder._

I sat up abruptly, only accomplishing smacking my head against Fang's.

"OW!" He exclaimed as he fell backwards from the impact. He rubbed his head hard with the palm of his hand and he glared at me.

"Sorry…" I muttered sheepishly, wiping the beads of sweat off my forehead. I rubbed my eyes drowsily and found that my throat ached. I also found that both boys were staring at me as if I was from another freaking planet.

"What?" I asked, looking between them.

"You were screaming," Fang said, removing his hand to reveal a nice red mark on his forehead, I probably matched him.

"And crying," Iggy added, his eyes directed at the fire now as he started to cook breakfast.

"I'm fine," I choked out, finding it hard to talk. "Just a bad dream. Can I have some water?"

Fang gave me a pointed look that said 'we'll talk about this later' before walking to the other side of the cave to get some water. I looked toward the cave entrance and sighed as I hugged my knees to my chest. My dream had been all too real and painful as if…as if it was a memory. But it made no sense. How could I have known Mr. Batchelder while being at the school? It was at the school, right? That's where my deathly fear of needles and men and white coats came from, so that must be it. But how do I even know that it is definitely a memory? Ugh, my head hurts…

"Max?"

I blinked and looked up to find Fang standing over me, holding out a drink bottle.

"Thanks," I said shakily, reaching out a quivering hand to take the bottle and held it to my dry lips. While I drank I noticed that Fang didn't take his dark eyes off me the whole time. I emptied the whole thing and turned to him. "What?"

Fang just shook his head and went to sit by Iggy to help make breakfast. I stood up slowly, and once I got my bearings I walked over to the boys.

"Eat breakfast quickly. We leave in half an hour."

After continuous nonstop flying we arrived in New York within two hours. Pretty amazing, huh? During that time I had managed to draw my attention away from my nightmare and back onto Nudge again. We were so close now that I could practically sense it.

"Max, how the heck do you know where we're going?" Iggy asked, still sounding doubtful about all this.

I sighed. "I don't know, Ig. I just do. It's almost like a sixth sense."

"As if you didn't have enough already," Fang joked. "Wings, images that tell you where to go next along with headaches that make you drop out of the sky and now a sixth sense. Nice going, Max."

Iggy snickered.

"Since when are you so talkative and set on mocking me?" I retorted, staring at him in disbelief.

And guess what the Prince of Darkness did next. That's right, he shrugged. He says, like, a whole two sentences and then nothing else.

"You two lovebirds can deal with your issues later," Iggy said with a taunting grin. I opened my mouth to deny everything but he continued. "Shouldn't we be focussing on finding the house?"

"That's what I'm _trying _to do, Iggy."

"Well stop arguing with your boyfriend and focus."

"He's not my boyfriend!"

"She's not my girlfriend!"

Iggy cracked up and suddenly had a hard time keeping himself aloft. He was only teasing us and I continuously took the bait. But I knew of a way to shut him up pretty quickly.

"Iggy just shut up." He continued to laugh. "I know that you're just upset because _Alison _turned out to be bad news."

That stopped him dead in his tracks and he placed a horrified expression on his face. It was now Fang's and my turn to laugh extremely hard and have difficulty flying.

We were acting just like normal teenagers, teasing each other, enjoying each others company and laughing. Except for, you know, the flying thing.

"Hey look!" I said, my laughter stopping as I saw this enormous, white mansion-like house that seemed to stand out from everything else.

"Well, that has to be it," I said, still shocked by the sheer size of the place.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Fang said irritably as he dived towards it.

What was up with him?

**Me: Yeah...this chapter fails epically**

**Iggy: Bed?**

**Me: Good idea...if you're still reading:**

**R&R?**

**-Bell and Ig**


	20. Chapter 20:Gatecrashing Moniques concert

**Me: Heh...hi guys...**

**Iggy: Yeah, hi readers that are still reading this after FIVE MONTHS of absence!**

**Me: -sigh- I would apologise and go on and on and on about why I haven't updated this, but let's just say it was writers block, school and exams. All three are relavent reasons in my case.**

**Iggy: I disagree**

**Me: Well You. Don't. Count.**

**Iggy: -sniffle- That hurts, Bell...**

**Me: -glares- Alright, everyone who is still reading this, expect regular updates now that I'm on break :) I know where I'm going with this fic now...so yeah :)**

**Iggy: Uh-huh...let's just move on with this.**

**Me: Once again, I'm sorry guys! But, over the next few days I'm updating every fic, so look out for that. Enjoy :)**

We landed silently in the front garden of the house and hid behind a large hedge in the shape of a giraffe. And, by the way, when I use the term 'house,' I mean it in the loosest way possible. This wasn't a house, it was a freaking mansion. I mean, I knew that compared to where I grew up – in a dog crate – anything would be bigger, but this place made my mom's house look like a toolshed. There were seven windows across each of the three floors, all with neat white trim and it was painted light blue in an attempt to give it that cottage feel despite its size. That failed. It also had large, white double doors in the centre with an arch window running along the top of the door, all of the small pieces of glass different colors to finish the monstrosity. Who needs a place this big? I would go with my 'toolshed' sized house any day.

"So what now?" Iggy whispered as Fang and I continued to gape at the hugeness of the house.

"Uh…" I pulled myself together. "We pretend that we're not on the run and be good, law abiding Avian Americans."

"So we ring the doorbell?" Fang asked with a smirk and I nodded.

"Naturally."

I stood and strode purposefully across the lawn towards the door, dodging sculptures made out of hedges along the way. When I got to the door, I looked over my shoulder at the boys for confirmation and when they nodded I pressed the doorbell.

On the other side of the door, I could hear music echoing happily through the house followed by a set of high heeled shoes clopping across the tiled floor. A short woman with brown eyes and dark hair answered the door. She was dressed in a typical maid outfit – a black dress with a white apron over the top – and her eyes shifted between the three of us as if to say 'not _more _rude teenagers.'

"May I help you?"

"I'm sorry to bother you," I said politely, "but we're some of Monique's friends. Is she here?"

"I'm sorry my dears," the maid said in a way that suggested she'd said the same thing many times and was getting sick of repeating herself. But she still continued nonetheless. "But she's performing for charity at central park this afternoon and she just left to get ready. If you were _really_ her friends, you would have known that. Now go away."

And with that, she slammed the door hard on us and I turned to Iggy and Fang.

"Who's up for gatecrashing Monique Carlson's concert?"

_**…**_

It only took us about 10 minutes by air to get there and when we arrived, we were surprised to find that everything was already set up. There was a huge stage with a set of drums and two guitars in the back and a large banner swung across the top that read 'Monique Carlson rocks out to help unfortunate children in Africa!' And, as for the crowd, it was huge. There were at least 5000 people all crammed into a small section of the park and more were joining.

"Jeez, they must really like her," I muttered as I looked nervously at the crowd.

"Yeah, because we need to feel as claustrophobic as possible while we find Nudge," Iggy added in annoyance, obviously able to hear the amount of people below.

"Well, let's just find her and get out of here," Fang said, but I could still see the uneasiness in his expression as he looked at the large group of people gathering in the park.

"Come on, we'll land over there by those oak trees and try to blend in. Then we'll try to get behind the stage and find Nudge. Got it?"

"Got it," Iggy said and Fang nodded in agreement.

Once we landed, the noise seemed to pick up abruptly and the crowd cheered as someone said over the microphone "Hi guys! Are you ready to rock?"

The cheering got so loud that Iggy was forced to put his hands over his ears.

"Alright then! Just give me five minutes to get ready and then we'll party! WOOT!"

The crowd roared with applause and screaming even louder than before.

"Bigger crowd than we thought?" Fang guessed, having to shout over the noise and I nodded.

"I guess I'm no good at counting people in crowd. Go figure," I shouted back. "Let's just watch her perform, get a good look at her to see if she _could_ be Nudge and then we'll catch her at the interval!"

"_If _there's an interval," Iggy yelled. "And there better be. I don't know how long I can take this thick smothering wall of sound!"

"There will be," I assured him and then grabbed his arm, leading the two boys out into the open. From here, if I stood on my tiptoes, I could see the stage with a small figure and a band standing on it. But even with my raptor vision we were too far away to actually make out anything other than the fact that they were human. Well, for the most part if that really was Nudge.

"Go around?" Fang asked and I nodded, pointing to the right of the crowd. He led the way this time as I followed him through the people, dragging a very annoyed Iggy who I was almost certain was cussing like a sailor.

"There!" Fang eventually shouted, pointing at a little space near the front. It was far off to the right, practically behind the stage, where you couldn't see anything and the noise level wasn't as bad. It was also away from the speakers which helped a lot. It was as if Nudge knew we were coming and had set up this spot for us. All that was missing were the red, velvet ropes and the 'VIAH' sign, AKA, _Very Important Avian Hybrids._

Five minutes later, the crowd roared again and I assumed that Monique Carlson was on stage, getting ready to perform.

"Wait here," I told them glancing nervously through the crowd. "I've just got to see what she looks like."

Fang nodded and Iggy waved his hand, gesturing me to go ahead.

Pushing through the audience, who were hardly paying attention, I made my way over to the front of the stage where I could see the band getting ready. There were two guys plucking at a guitar string, sending ripples of noise across the crowd that made the ground vibrate and the drummer was tapping tenderly at his drums and then hitting them hard and fast to see what affect it had on the crowd. I could hear girls swooning over him and I rolled my eyes in annoyance.

And then there was the singer.

She had chocolate brown skin and eyes with long lashes. Her hair was loose and curled perfectly, bouncing around her shoulders as she fiddled with the microphone, tapping it to see the sound that it made and saying 'testing' into the microphone. The crowd and noise almost seemed to dissolve around me as I stared at her in thought. She really did fit the description…and her voice sounded somewhat similar to what it used to when she was a kid. Could this really be Nudge?

Still staring at the girl, I made my way back over to the boys until she was out of sight.

_**…**_

We listened to her perform and she sounded amazing. Not to mention that Iggy was right about the lyrics – the first verse sounded scarily like the school and she sung it as if it was a real experience to her.

After performing about six songs of which I had never heard of but the crowd adored, she called interval and said that she would be back in 30 minutes.

"That's are cue," I said, tuning out the rest of what she was saying about how great the crowd was and how much she loved her fans.

"Wait, Max" Fang said, touching my arm. I swear that sparks started flying from my arm throughout my whole body when he touched me and I flinched. But if Fang noticed this, he didn't let on. "You never told us what you thought about her."

I shook my head. "She looks like an older version of Nudge. She sounds like an older version of Nudge. And the song…that's three strikes - I think we have enough to go on here. And, if we're wrong, the worst she's going to do is accuse us of being lunatics and call security on us. So what?"

"If you say so," he said, letting go of my arm and allowing Iggy to grab hold of his belt loop as we sneaked carefully around the security guards towards the back of the stage. They really failed on stopping us, actually. I decided that if Monique Carlson really was Nudge, I was going to tell her to fire them immediately.

Behind the stage was a small trailer that had two bodyguards at the front, their muscles bulging powerfully and their eyes directed straight ahead through their sunglasses. Though I wondered why they needed them during this dull weather.

"What now?" Fang asked. "Can we take them?"

"I don't want to cause a scene," I answered looking around me at the random passerby's who were walking dogs and talking with friends as they attempted to tune out the noise.

"We could blow them up," Iggy suggested and I shot a pointless glare at him.

"Weren't you listening to what I just said?" I snapped.

"Yes, I did. Can we blow them up now?"

"No!" I shouted and people looked over at us curiously. Another glare was then wasted on Iggy.

"Max, I thought you said that you didn't want to cause a scene," Iggy said in a hushed tone, smiling in an annoyingly Iggy way.

"Just come on," I said, storming off towards the trailer. "Time for a different approach."

We walked over to the body guards and they both stared at us in an unfriendly way.

"Hiya," I said as innocently as possible, smiling kindly at them. Their eyes narrowed behind their glasses. "I was just wondering if I could get Monique's autograph." I slipped my backpack off my shoulders and took out a notepad that I'd packed accidently in the wild rush to grab the essentials. "You see, I've been such a big fan for a long time and-"

"No one gets in," Big goon one said, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Aw, but I would really like to-"

"He said no one gets in," Big goon two snapped, losing his patience.

I glared at them, about to seriously start chewing them out when the door to the trailer opened and Monique appeared.

"Oh, Benji, you're such a killjoy," she said, shoving his shoulder.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't call me that, miss."

"Alright, what about Banjo? Better?"

I could have sworn that Big goon one chuckled. Big goon two, Banjo, clenched his fists but said nothing of the assult.

"Come on in," Monique said, gesturing for us to go inside. "But just quickly. I need to get ready for my next performance."

**Me: -laughs- I love quoting the first book!**

**Iggy: "This thick smothering wall of sound." That sounds familiar.**

**Me: And a concert in the middle of central park? A charity to help the children in Africa? Heh, I'm so clever.**

**Iggy: Yeah, right. Ripping off the other books?**

**Me: -glares- This story is supposed to combine all the books into this story...doing very well :)**

**Iggy: Okay...**

**Me: Oh! And I should so totally name the other goon...hmm...Benji/Banjo and...BOBBYBILL!**

**Iggy: ...**

**Me: What? It's better than Billybob! Bobbybill!**

**Iggy: -shakes head sadly-**

**Me: R&R?**

**-Bell and Ig**


	21. Chapter 21: Monique Nudge duh!

**Me: Alright...I'm not in a good mood right now**

**Iggy: You can say that again**

**Me: -eyeroll- So I'm just gonna update this (I wrote it yesterday but didn't have time to put it up) and then go and do something that will cheer myself up.**

**Iggy: Good luck with that.**

**Me: -sigh- yeah...enjoy guys.**

The three of us piled into the trailer - making sure to pull funny faces at Banjo and Goon one on the way - and closed the door behind us. When we were all inside, Monique sat down on a swivel chair which was in front of a huge mirror with pictures around the edges. One that particularly caught my eye was an old photo of Monique when she was about seven, standing in front of a smiling couple. Monique was cuddling a little puppy close to her chest while the couple – most likely her parents – each had a hand on her shoulder. They looked so…happy. Like a picture perfect family.

"So," Monique started, swivelling around in her chair. "Where are you guys from?"

I answered her question, and kept my eyes locked with hers. She seemed all excited and bouncy as if she'd just swallowed ten cups of coffee in under five minutes.

"Oh wow, that is so cool! And so far away! Did you come all the way here to see my concert? You guys are amazing. I'd be glad to sign some autographs!" She blurted out, reaching for my notepad.

Did I say ten cups of coffee? I really meant fifteen.

Blinking once in astonishment, I handed her the pad and she scribbled something down on it.

"So who do I make this out to?"

I decided to take the risk. After all, I really had nothing to lose at this point.

"Maximum Ride," I said simply and she stopped writing abruptly. "And as for these two," I gestured at the boys, "you can make theirs out to Iggy and Fang."

Monique dropped her pen and stared at me, her eyes filling with tears. "Max? Is…is that really you? It's me! Nudge!"

"No!" I exclaimed in fake shock. "I really had no idea, Monique Carlson."

She laughed and stood, practically barrelling me over when she hugged me. "I can't believe that you're here! At my concert! In New York! And Fang and Iggy are too! OMG!" She unwrapped herself from me and hugged them both and I was surprised to see that they were both smiling from ear to ear. Well, Fang's lips were tilted slightly upwards. That was enough for him.

"But…how did you find me, and what are you doing here…together?" She said the word 'together' as if it was absolutely impossible that we could have found each other. And I guess it almost was. But here we were, standing in Nudge's trailer – the Flock. Well, most of it now.

I smiled and told her the story as quickly as possible. How Fang had showed up at my highschool and how Iggy had appeared shortly after. Then about how Igs heard her on TV and I made sure to mention the parts about how I had been desperately searching for the Flock and, oh yeah, the fact that some guys in black were looking for us and probably hunting us down at this very moment. I couldn't forget about that now could I?

At the last piece of news she stared at me in shock. "But they let us go! Why would they want us again?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "But one of my friends back home was in on it…and, strangely enough, my science teacher Mr. Batchelder."

Nudges mouth opened but no words came out and her eyes widened . I was afraid that they were about to fall onto the carpet at any minute.

"Max," she said slowly. "Don't…don't you recognise that name?"

I bit my lip thinking hard. Batchelder…Batchelder…it sounded familiar but I wasn't sure if I was just relating the name to the memory of my science teacher or something more. Suddenly Iggy gasped.

"Are you thinking it could be _Jeb _Batchelder?"

Nudge nodded quickly. "That's exactly who I was thinking!"

"Are we missing something?" Fang cut in, and Nudge's eyes shot towards him as if she'd forgotten he was there for a moment. Fang has that affect on people.

"Ah," she said as if understanding. "You two left beforehand didn't you! Well I'll tell you what happened. You and Fang had gone, right? And there were just four of us left. And we were scared for a while that you hadn't _really_ been taken away by nice people and you'd actually been murdered or something. I mean, we had a good reason to believe that, right? It was just so scary and the two oldest members had left and there was only four of us and-"

"Nudge!" I cut in before she started to tell the whole story again. "Who is Jeb? Tell us that."

She sucked in a breath so she could start talking again. "Anyway, Iggy and I were taken a day after you two were taken. However, on the same day that you were taken, two Whitecoats came in to…uh…inspect us. They kind of just walked up and down, looking at us all. One of them was angry about how you and Fang had been taken away first, and that we were worth nothing without you guys. While the other one was encouraging the first Whitecoat, saying that it was for the good of the experiment or something. That it would be good for us to get out into the world…I think."

"Yeah," Iggy interrupted, probably sensing our confusion at the way that Nudge told it. She spoke so fast that I could barely understand what she was saying and I was glad when Iggy continued for her. "I remember now. Then the angry Whitecoat said something like "you're endangering the experiment, Batchelder!" then stormed out, probably trying to be dramatic but he really looked like an idiot - so to speak. But the Whitecoat that was left knelt down next to us and introduced himself as 'Jeb Batchelder' and said that it was his idea to let us go and we were very special. He said that it was important that we didn't mess it up. Whatever that means."

"And you neglected to tell us this until now?" I asked him, feeling slightly annoyed. The crisis with Mr. Batchelder and Ali could have been avoided. Well, not with Ali...

"I forgot, ok? It didn't seem like a piece of vital information so I didn't think that I needed to share it," Iggy said sheepishly, running a hand through his strawberry blonde hair.

I sighed. "I guess it doesn't matter now. What's happened has happened."

Just then, a loud knocking came from the door, followed by Banjo's voice.

"Monique! What are you doing? You're on in five minutes!"

"Oh no," she said, looking between us and the door. "Can you guys-"

"Of course we'll wait for you," I interrupted, understanding what she wanted us to do. "Just meet us here when you finish your concert, 'k?"

She squealed and hugged me again, clearly overjoyed to have us back. But that was pretty short-lived.

"Shh!" Iggy interrupted, his head tilting slightly in concentration. Everyone paused and listened hard for a moment before Iggy spoke again. "Oh no."

"What is it?" I barely whispered.

"They're here! Outside!" He whisper shouted.

But before any of us had any time to react there was a loud rap at the door followed by someone saying in a gravelly voice "Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in." Then, the door was quickly ripped off its hinges. The four of us stepped back and stared in horror at the Eraser. His teeth were bared in a fierce gesture and his muscles bulged with power. His eyes flickered between each of us hungrily as if we were his next meal.

I hadn't seen Erasers in six years. I wasn't even sure they still existed. But here it was, standing in the doorway of Nudge's trailer. God my life sucks.

"Don't worry, I let myself in," he growled before lunging right at me.

**Me: Yeah...the peace couldn't last forever**

**Iggy: Wait...if Jeb never trained us properly...**

**Me: Then none of you learned how to fight? Exactly. You guys are screwed.**

**Iggy: HEY!**

**Me: You are. Anyway, R&R? Sorry, it's really just a filler...but yeah :)**

**-Bell and Ig**


End file.
